This study discusses the influence of history on identity for those who are involved with the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall (also know as the VJLS). The historical significance of a recognized landmark such as the VJLS creates a unique atmosphere that allows the past to be very much part of the present. In addition to many types of commemoration, memory and imagination provide links to the past. The community at the VJLS was very diverse including both recent immigrants and those with family connections to the Internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. As a result, the feeling of a connection to the past was discussed in many different ways. These discussions are used in this study to explore the question of what it means to be Japanese Canadian and to be Canadian. At the VJLS, the history of Japanese Canadians is shown to belong to all Canadians rather than just to a separate ethic group within Canada.

This study discusses the influence of history on identity for those who are involved with the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall (also know as the VJLS). The historical significance of a recognized landmark such as the VJLS creates a unique atmosphere that allows the past to be very much part of the present. In addition to many types of commemoration, memory and imagination provide links to the past. The community at the VJLS was very diverse including both recent immigrants and those with family connections to the Internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II. As a result, the feeling of a connection to the past was discussed in many different ways. These discussions are used in this study to explore the question of what it means to be Japanese Canadian and to be Canadian. At the VJLS, the history of Japanese Canadians is shown to belong to all Canadians rather than just to a separate ethic group within Canada. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate