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From foe to friend: Japanese culture in Canada

Broadcast Date: Oct. 23, 1956

Seven years after the government lifted the last Second World War-imposed restrictions on their rights, Japanese Canadians are rebuilding their lives and culture. And, as this 1956 Tabloid episode shows, Canadians have a lot to learn. Sporting a judo suit, host Dick MacDougal puzzles over the difference between Chinese and Japanese food, as guest Gloria Sato shows him how to make suki yaki. Other guests demonstrate sword dancing, flower arranging, judo and how to wear a kimono. Percy Saltzman is at the top of his game delivering the day's weather.

From foe to friend: Japanese culture in Canada

• In 1877, Manzo Nagano, a young Japanese worker, snuck off the ship he had stowed away on in Yokohama and walked onto the shores of British Columbia, becoming Canada's first reported Japanese immigrant.

• After Japan's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour, the Canadian government began stripping Japanese Canadians of their rights, interning the 22,000-strong Japanese community in camps.

• At the War's end, Japanese Canadians were told they could either be "repatriated" to Japan (which many read as forced deportation), or be split up and dispersed throughout Canada. The dispersal severed many cultural, language and community ties that had existed in the tightly-knit Japanese communities prior to the Second World War. For more on Japanese internment, and its repercussions, see Relocation to Redress: The Internment of the Japanese Canadians, .

From foe to friend: Japanese culture in Canada

Medium: Television

Program: Tabloid

Broadcast Date: Oct. 23, 1956

Guest(s): Frank Harashiya, Patsy Yuriko Harashiya, Mrs. Hayashi, Toshi Ikawa, Mrs. Kagetsu, Satamo Sato, Gloria Sato, Taro Sugi, Mrs. Takahashi

Announcer: Gil Christy
Host: Percy Saltzman, Dick MacDougal
Interviewer: Rex Loring, Joyce Davidson

Duration: 27:04

Last updated:
Nov. 12, 2008