Past Wrongs, Future Choices (PWFC) is a partnership project based at the University of Victoria. Building on the work done by the Landscapes of Injustice (LOI) project which focused on the dispossession and displacement of Japanese Canadians, PWFC expands this lens to bring together the global history of the mistreatment of Nikkei during WWII.
In the past year, the PWFC Archives Cluster ran three workshops centered around helping members of the Japanese Canadian community navigate and interpret the records found in the Landscapes of Injustice (LOI) database.
JCCC Connections Conference (December 2024)
Mike Abe (PWFC project manager), Lisa Uyeda (Archives Cluster co-chair), and Tomoko Shida (Archives Cluster archivist) traveled to Toronto to participate in the JCCC Connections Conference on December 7, 2024. This conference was co-organized by Theressa Takasaki (Archives Cluster co-chair) and other members of the JCCC. Lisa joined Susanne Tabata (CEO, Japanese Canadian Legacies Society) for the morning plenary. Lisa, Mike and Tomoko then ran two hands-on workshop sessions on helping participants navigate and interpret the custodian case files found in the LOI database with about 20 attendees at each session. Some key takeaways were tips for searching and browsing for case files. The workshops also provided information about the different types of forms commonly found in the case files, as well what information cannot be found in them and why.
One participant of the morning session wrote, “The database gives me a sense of validation & of being seen. The fact that these documents can be so easily searched & accessed is gratifying.”
NAJC Japanese Canadian Family History Program Virtual Sessions
PWFC co-hosted two virtual sessions in partnership with Emily Coppollela as part of the National Association of Japanese Canadians’ (NAJC) Family History Program.
The first virtual session titled “Navigating the LOI Database Part 1: Case Files” took place over Zoom on May 6, 2025. Like the workshop at the JCCC in Toronto, this session focused on helping community members access and interpret the Custodian Case Files. More than 50 participants signed in from across Canada, including some pillars of the community like Art Miki and Ann Sunahara.
Caption: Screenshot of Louise Noguchi speaking about conducting research in preparation for her performance piece and exhibition, Shape of Loss, starting during Toronto’s Nuit Blanche at the JCCC on October 4, 2025 and on view until January 23, 2026.
Our second virtual session titled “Navigating the LOI Database Part 2: Fishing Vessel Records” took place on August 19, 2025. This session focused on records within the database about fishing boats that belonged to Japanese Canadians prior to their forced uprooting and dispossession.
It featured special guests artists Marlene Howell and Louise Noguchi, who talked about how they used information found in the LOI database as a source of artistic inspiration. Our own PWFC project co-director Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross and Archives Cluster co-chair Lisa Uyeda also provided some insights into how the fishing vessel records came to be a part of the LOI database, and provided a database demonstration focusing specifically on navigating the Fishing Boat Ledger, Fishing Vessel Request Letters, and the website Witness to Loss. We are grateful to community member Debbie Lee Jiang for providing even more resources, including information about the private Facebook Group Japanese Canadian Fishing Boats!
We had 51 people join this second virtual session. One participant of the second virtual session provided the following feedback: “I am so glad I tuned in; time well spent! The session was very fulsome without being heavy: a bit about the database contents and the primary source (Kimura); how creatives are using the materials; how to search and browse; and the private FB page and the joy it has brought to group members. The use of visuals–artwork, archival photos, archival documents, message threads in the FB page–was really effective. I look forward to the next PWFC session!”
Stay tuned!
For those who missed any of the virtual sessions, the recordings can now be viewed on the NAJC’s Youtube Channel @nationalassociationjapanes318. More information about the NAJC Japanese Canadian Family History Program, as well as past and upcoming events can be found on their website via this link: najc.ca/programs/jcfamilyhistory.
For more information and news, visit pastwrongsfuturechoices.com and subscribe to the PWFC Newsletter.
