By Lorene Oikawa, Past President
On the Cumberland Museum website there is a link to their Flickr gallery of photographs and a special section, “Portraits – Japanese Canadian Residents and Buildings.”
I see my grandfather, Kenichi Doi’s photo as Most Valuable Player, holding a trophy. I see another photo of my grandfather with other baseball players in a group photo with the 1922 Comox District Intermediate Baseball League Champions Trophy in the centre.
As a child when I would visit my grandparents in Slocan, my grandfather would say to me, “I was born in Cumberland, in Canada. I am a Canadian.” I asked my mom, why does grandpa say he was born in Canada every time I visit him. My mom told me that my grandfather just wanted me to remember that he was born in Canada and that he is Canadian same as me. I should always remember that I am Canadian, too.
Now, as an adult, I understand he was deeply hurt by the racism he faced his entire life and then in 1942, his own government denied his Canadian identity. He and 22,000 other Japanese Canadians were told they were enemy aliens. The Canadian government disregarded the RCMP and Canadian military’s findings that there wasn’t any evidence of spying or sabotage against Canada.
Japanese Canadians had come to Canada in the 1800s and at the turn of the century. They were paid less than white workers. They took the most dangerous jobs and the jobs that white workers didn’t want. The were committed to their survival and their dreams. They worked impossible hours and saved their money. They bought fishing boats, farms, mills, shops, and they started building their communities.
As they thrived and prospered, it attracted the attention of other business people, unions, provincial and federal government representation, and those who refused to acknowledge their hard work and falsely accused them of stealing property and jobs.
The bombing of Pearl Harbour gave the racist politicians an opportunity to promote fear mongering and push Japanese Canadians out of British Columbia. Good government representatives would have tried to allay the fears of all citizens. They had laws in 1942 as they do now that may be used to arrest someone who is breaking the law. It is based on facts, actual evidence, and the accused also have the right for due process and an opportunity to defend themselves.
Japanese Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes, dispossessed, incarcerated, and exiled until 1949, four years after the Second World War ended. Japanese Canadians were denied justice.
Japanese Canadians were not the first displaced peoples in Cumberland. For time immemorial, the K’όmoks peoples, were the traditonal caretakers of the lands and water in the Comox Valley. The European settlers took their land and forced them south.
Japanese Canadian settlers were at first drawn to the plentiful mining jobs. They leased land close to where they worked, at Number 5 and Number 1 mines. Number 5 and Number 1 Towns comprised about 600 Japanese Canadians.
To the east of Number 1 Town there was a coal tailings pile known as Taka Yama. Taka Yama formed a backstop for a baseball diamond.
My uncle George Doi remembers the community spirit in Cumberland and how the community loved baseball. George who was a boy in Royston (about 2 miles east of Cumberland) remembers families heading to Cumberland with a basket of food to watch the games. He remembers sitting in a truck with side rails and planks laid across to make benches for sitting.
The baseball team for No. 5 Town was called “Sun” and the baseball team for No. 1 Town was called “Nippon.” His father, my grandfather, Kenichi Doi was born in Cumberland, lived near No. 5 Town, and played for the Sun team.
George says, “Father had a passion for baseball, and he was very good at it. He was a pitcher. He told me that one year he averaged eleven strike-outs per game and the most strike-outs he had in a game was nineteen.” “Except in Major leagues, ball players did not get paid for playing. Instead they were promised good jobs.” “Dad’s brothers, Tadashi (Clifford) and Tadao (Fred) were “catchers” and Tadashi also played first base. They were a formidable trio.” My uncle said that when the Japanese Canadians played a white team, they would combine the Sun and Nippon teams to play them. In 1922, the combined team won the Comox District championship.
In the 1920s, the Vancouver Asahi baseball team would come to play the Cumberland teams. They recruited Kenichi with a promise of a job at Timberland Sawmills in New Westminster. He also worked at the Fraser Mills in Vancouver. He played for the Vancouver Asahi baseball team in 1926 when they won the Terminal League Championship. However, the pull of family was too strong, and he left Vancouver to get married. He stayed to help the family when their home was lost in a fire at No. 5 Town.
My grandfather’s love of baseball continued, and he played for the Royston baseball team. My uncle said Royston played teams on Vancouver Island, from Powell River, and from Bellingham, Washington. Isamu (Sam) Yano told my uncle that the Royston team
was a very strong team and they would regularly beat the Vancouver Asahi team when they came to play.
Another interesting story is that the Royston team played the visiting Tokyo Giants from Japan in 1935. The Tokyo Giants were a professional team and stronger. Royston lost 2 to 5. My grandfather told George that they had a very tall pitcher by the name of Victor Starffin. He was nicknamed the “blue-eyed Japanese.” He was born in Russia, but his family left after the Russian Revolution, moving first to Manchuria and then to Hokkaido. He played baseball in high school in Japan and then turned professional. He set many records and was the first foreigner to be elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame.
When I was little, I remember older Japanese Canadian men telling me about how they remember seeing different games when my grandfather pitched and how good he was. I didn’t really understand what they were saying, but I could hear the admiration in their voices. I do remember my grandfather trying to show me how to hold a baseball, but I was too young and my fingers couldn’t fit around the ball. He did pitch a ball, and it looked like magic as if he made the ball jump. My uncle said it was his speciality, a drop ball.
Japanese Canadians continued to play baseball even in the incarceration camps. Their love of baseball is reflected in the stories and the photos.
The Cumberland Museum & Archives has a new exhibit exploring these Japanese Canadian stories called Stolen Bases. The opening will take place on Monday, March 23, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Cumberland Museum & Archives, 2680 Dunsmuir Avenue, Cumberland, B.C. For more info, email [email protected] The link for the museum’s digital collection is at https://cumberlandmuseum.ca/collections/
Thanks to my uncle George Doi for his memories of my grandfather.
Nippon/Sun Baseball Team – 1922 – Photo credit: T. Iwasa
Back (l to r): T. Hatano, Masao Tanaka, Yamamoto
Middle (l to r): Ken Hayahi, Ken Doi, Mgr. M. Anpi, Y. Higano, Toshio Kajiyama
Front (l to r): Tatsumi Iwasa (bat boy), Kitasaka T. Tanaka, Hajime Sarayama
