This present thesis is a study of the re-establishment of the Vancouver Japanese
Language School (first established in 1906), and the Japanese Canadian community in
Vancouver after World War II. Focusing on the reopening of the school in 1952, this
study attempts to discuss how the school's reopening influenced the rebuilding of the
Japanese-Canadian community in post-war Vancouver, where Japanese Canadians had
had a large ethnic community before 1941. B y regarding the Japanese-language school as
a means to comprehend trends in the lives of Japanese Canadians, this study seeks to
understand how and to what extent the Japanese Canadians in Vancouver were able to
reconstruct their ethnic identity: how much they acculturated into anglo-Canadian society
after the devastation of their ethnic community; and how differently each successive
generation has perceived the significance of ethnic cultural retention, such as the Japanese
language.
Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941, the Vancouver Japanese
Language School was the largest such school on the Pacific coast of North America, and
served the Japanese Canadian community as a transmitter of their ethnic culture and
traditions to the next generation. However, after the destruction of the ethnic community
by the World War II evacuation of Japanese Canadians in 1942, the leadership of the
Japanese Canadians shifted from culturally "Japanese-oriented" issei (first generation) to
"more-Canadianized" nisei (second generation). Consequently, demand for fluency in the Japanese language and an understanding of the ethnic culture was replaced with the
demand for English and the anglo-Canadian culture. Despite such a huge change in the
community, the Vancouver Japanese Language School was reopened, though reduced in
size, and continues to operate to the present.
This study draws evidence from several works by a long-time principal and teacher
of the school, Tsutae Sato, and his wife Hanako, a variety of primary sources from the
Sato Collection at the University of British Columbia, and the Japanese ethnic press, as
well as the author's interviews with six people who have historical connections to the
school reopening and management. By using these sources, this study attempts to
examine what the meaning of the school reopening was for the Japanese Canadians after
the devastation of their pre-war communities; how the school's function and roles
changed from the pre-war to the post-war period; how language education and the
Japanese language influenced the formation of Japanese Canadians' particularly that of
the nisei ethnic identity as heirs to a Japanese tradition in Canada.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/4354 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Otsuka, Chihiro |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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