About Me

Who am I

I am a half-Japan­ese woman cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing my third year at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria.

Pri­or to 1942, over nine­ty per­cent of Japan­ese indi­vid­u­als liv­ing in Cana­da resided in British Colum­bia. How­ev­er, fol­low­ing the attack on Pearl Har­bor in 1941 these sta­tis­tics changed dras­ti­cal­ly. The attacks con­duct­ed by Japan­ese forces led to increased racism and para­noia towards those who were Japan­ese (Chan, 2023). Through a racial­ized use of the War Mea­sures Act, Japan­ese Cana­di­ans resid­ing with­in 160 kilo­me­ters of the Pacif­ic Coast were forcibly relo­cat­ed away from the coast (Suna­hara, 2011). For these indi­vid­u­als this evac­u­a­tion meant uproot­ing their com­mu­ni­ties and lives, los­ing per­son­al pos­ses­sions, prop­er­ties and busi­ness­es in the process. My grand­fa­ther and his fam­i­ly were one of the thou­sands uproot­ed due to the racial dis­crim­i­na­tion of the Cana­di­an gov­ern­ment.

My grand­fa­ther Kaz Shikaze was born in 1938 and grew up on his fam­i­ly’s farm in Dewd­ney, BC. In 1942 his fam­i­ly were forced to relo­cate and move east to Man­i­to­ba fol­low­ing the bomb­ing of Pearl Har­bour. In the fol­low­ing years, Kaz’s par­ents received $1,414 through my great grand­fa­ther’s claim with the Bird Com­mis­sion, which was a mere frac­tion of the val­ue for their six acre farm in Mis­sion. These his­tor­i­cal injus­tices had many effects on my grand­fa­ther’s fam­i­ly and the way they were able to live their lives. My grand­fa­ther’s account of his forced relo­ca­tion is not my own expe­ri­ence but has influ­enced the way that my moth­er was raised, which in turn has impact­ed my upbring­ing and the way that I as a half-Japan­ese woman live. The his­to­ry of forced relo­ca­tion, loss of com­mu­ni­ty and sys­temic mar­gin­al­iza­tion has shaped the way that my fam­i­ly has expe­ri­enced their lives in Cana­da. These fam­i­ly his­to­ries shape how I oper­ate as a Yon­sei (fourth-gen­er­a­tion) Japan­ese Cana­di­an and under­stand the com­plex­i­ties of being an Asian indi­vid­ual in a West­ern­ized soci­ety.

Goals

As a half-Japan­ese woman who wants to cre­ate pos­i­tive change, I val­ue com­pas­sion, diver­si­ty and growth. Under­stand­ing and com­pas­sion with­in my work­place is cru­cial in build­ing mean­ing­ful and long-last­ing rela­tion­ships. The sec­ond core val­ue that I have sur­rounds diver­si­ty and inclu­sion. I want the work­place I am a part of to val­ue indi­vid­u­als and inter­sec­tion­al per­spec­tives, as I believe it helps to fos­ter a bet­ter work envi­ron­ment for all. As a Yon­sei (fourth-gen­er­a­tion) Japan­ese Cana­di­an woman, I under­stand aspects of being a mem­ber of a minor­i­ty group and an Asian indi­vid­ual in a West­ern­ized soci­ety. I want my future work­place to embrace these same val­ues. Final­ly, I want my occu­pa­tion to allow me to have both per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al growth, so I can learn new things and broad­en my view of our social world.

Inter­ests

I am cur­rent­ly com­plet­ing my third year at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vic­to­ria (UVic) where I have majored in Soci­ol­o­gy. Soci­ol­o­gy looks at many social aspects of life, such as the ways in which soci­eties are orga­nized and how soci­eties help to shape human behav­iour. The field of Soci­ol­o­gy exam­ines cur­rent social prob­lems while stress­ing social jus­tice, equal­i­ty and equi­ty. It also looks at how past soci­eties have shaped the ways in which we live our lives today. 

Along­side my major I have con­duct­ed a minor in Gen­der Stud­ies. Gen­der Stud­ies also looks at aspects of social jus­tice but delves deep­er into the rela­tion­ships between gen­der and oth­er social­ly con­struct­ed ele­ments that affect our world. I believe that both of these fields of study are applic­a­ble to the soci­ety that we are a part of and can help us to fur­ther improve the ways in which we live our lives and con­tribute to the com­mu­ni­ties around us.