Mounted police, and beat policemen and firemen attend the Remembrance Day ceremonies at the Japanese Canadian War Memorial in Stanley Park. – photos Todd Wong.
I really like this photo of two people walking to the memorial ceremonies. After WW2, the Japanese communities in both Canada and USA became the most inter-racially married. This little girl definitely had Asian features but with light coloured hair. Many of my friends of Japanese ancestry also have mixed race heritage, or their children or grandchildren do.
The ceremonies were led by a Church minister and Major (retired) Roy Kawamoto.
Vancouver City Councilor Geoff Meggs laid the wreath for the City of Vancouver.
After the service he shared with me that historian Stanley Fukawa had told him him:
“the JC volunteers from BC had been unable to enlist in this
province. They marched, paraded and trained, hoping that their
demonstrations of patriotism would win public sympathy for giving them
the vote. They were ignored. (Less than a decade earlier, they had been
forced to defend their Powell St. community from a racist mob.)
Undeterred, they travelled to Alberta, then short of its quota of volunteers, and won admission to the war in that province.”
http://www.geoffmeggs.ca/2009/11/11/hundreds-recall-sacrifice-of-japanese-canadian-soldiers/
Major (Ret) Kawamoto told me that during WW2, had been arrested for defying the order of evacuation for Japanese Canadians. He was 12 years old at the time, put in jail, then sent to Greenwood internment camp.
My friends Grace Eiko Thomson and John Endo Greenaway introduced me to Mona Oikawa an associate professor at York University in Toronto. When I told Mona that I would put the pictures on my blogsite “Gunghaggisfatchoy.com”, she asked surprisingly “You're Gung Haggis? I check the website many times!”
Japanese-Canadian bugle player and Scottish-Canadian bagpiper. Maybe their ancestors fought against each other in WW2, or as allies or comrades with each other in WW1. No, they didn't play at the same time.
The bagpiper wears the Ancient Fraser Tartan and belongs to the 78th Fraser Highlanders. The bugler is with the 58th Field Artillery Regiment. When I told the bagpiper that I wore the Ancient Fraser Hunting Tartan, he smiled and said “Ahhh… Gung Haggis Fat Choy.”
