CJCA Quarterly Newsletter

The Landscapes of Injustice Project

Fact Finding! by Pat Jetté

March 4, 2018 – After 44 hours of non-stop snowfall we were glad to see that Mr. Michael Abe (Victoria) and Dr. Eric Adams (Edmonton) were able make it safely to the Centre to present their Landscapes of Injustice project recap.

Michael is the Project Manager of this 7-year project which began in 2014. He is a Nikkei Sansei and is based at the University of Victoria. He has been involved in the Japanese Canadian community in Ontario and Victoria.

He has been past-president of the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society, editor of the Victoria Nikkei Forum and involved with the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NJCA).

Eric is a Law Professor at the University of Alberta, Faculty of Law. He is currently leading the legal historical research team of Landscapes of Injustice, a large SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) funded inter-disciplinary research project investigating the dispossession of Japanese Canadians during the 1940s. Eric outlined the aspects of the War Measures Act and a guided timeline of various Orders-In-Councils that were inflicted on the Japanese Canadian community. He showed court proceeding case files and samples of original “Letters of Loss” and discussed the impact of the dispossession of property loss.

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In early April, I had a wonderful and thought provoking morning visiting the Atomic Dome and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. After hours of walking, viewing, reading and photo taking, I sat beside the Motoyasu River to contemplate what I had just experienced. As I sat under the blossoming cherry trees, a few of the petals floated down to begin a carpet of pale pink. They made me think about the falling tears that were shed during a show I had just witnessed in the National Peace Memorial Hall that told the stories of the children who were at their school that fateful day. Peace and harmony must not be taken for granted. The fight to achieve and maintain peace is a cause worth the effort. Good things will come to our community and its members but we all need to share in the effort to ensure that happens.

by CJCA President Roger Teshima

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