Okaeri おかえり is oral history video project by the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre and the Vancouver Japanese Language School & Japanese Hall, launched on February 20, 2023.
Okaeri おかえり is an oral history project featuring 21 interviews with Japanese Canadians who lived through the Second World War. It shares individual experiences of the nisei or second-generation Japanese Canadians who lived through internment in Canada, and the kika-nisei, who were also nisei but were uprooted to Japan and later returned to Canada in the 1950s. All life stories share the challenges of survival and what returning home meant to them.
Okaeri おかえり means ‘welcome back home.’
Video interviews with
Grace Eiko Thompson
Yvonne Wakabayashi (née Tasaka)
Frank Hiroshi Kamiya
Donald Kazuo Iwanaka
Denny Enjo
Howard Shimokura
Miki Hirai
Shigeyoshi and Kazue Ebata
Haruji “Harry” Mizuta
Akira “Aki” Horri
Misako “Mitzi” Morishita
Fusaye “Mary” Kawamoto (née Nakashimada)
Sharon Kawasaki-Chan
Vickie Fukui
Yoshie Kurita
Toshiko and Bill Kajiwara
Frank Hamanishi
Sumiko Urata
Roy Uyeda
