Combining storytelling with archival photographs, Nikkei Stories reanimates the people, places and events important to the social, economic and cultural life of Japanese Canadians who lived in the Powell Street community in Vancouver and Steveston, Richmond, BC.

Wouldn’t it be great if visitors to the Powell Street Festival could also walk up and down Powell Street and explore some of the businesses and workshops in the area? This was the simple idea that started the Open Doors Project – a multidimensional project to help commemorate and animate the Powell Street area.

Sewing and dressmaking in the Japanese Canadian community is a legacy of pride, skill and accomplishment passed on from thousands of women who mastered this vital art to practice their craft in British Columbia and across Canada from the early part of the twentieth century to the present. The inspiration for this exhibit came from a collection of dresses donated to the Nikkei National Museum by Mary Ohara, typical of those worn in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s.