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Canada’s First Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
In 1963, 75 Japanese Canadian families took out second mortgages on their own homes and businesses to raise the funds to purchase the land on which to build the original Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre (JCCC) in Toronto. The building, at 123 Wynford Drive, was designed and built in 1963 by Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, his first institutional project. In 2021, the JCCC moved to a new site at 6 Sakura Way, a 10-minute walk from the original site. The guiding principle of the JCCC is “Friendship Through Culture”.
Community Organizations
Examples of Japanese Canadian social organizations dedicated to senior care are Tonari Gumi in Vancouver and Momiji Health Care Society in Toronto, that emerged in the post-World War II era as vital lifelines for aging issei who had endured internment, dispossession, and forced relocation, leaving many isolated, impoverished, and disconnected from their communities.
Tonari Gumi
Founded in 1974 as the Japanese Community Volunteers Association, Tonari Gumi—named after the informal “neighbourhood groups” that fostered mutual aid during internment—began as a grassroots effort by young sansei volunteers and shin-ijusha (post-war immigrants) to provide support like language aid, social visits, and advocacy for issei living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside rooming houses, while also bridging generational gaps through cultural events and redress activism that culminated in the 1988 federal apology.
Momiji Health Care Society
Similarly, Momiji Health Care Society, established in 1978, focused on promoting independence for seniors primarily of Japanese descent through home services and community programs, evolving to open its supportive housing residence in 1992 and expand the Seniors Active Living Centre, which now offers bilingual (English-Japanese) activities blending Canadian and Japanese heritage to combat isolation and foster wellness.
Over the decades, organizations have adapted to shifting demographics and needs: Tonari Gumi has shifted emphasis to post-war immigrants; Momiji has broadened beyond ethnic-specific care to serve diverse older adults, emphasizing dignity and extended independence. Today, alongside entities like Nikkei Seniors Health Care and Housing Society, these groups embody a resilient evolution from trauma recovery to proactive, inclusive models of intergenerational support, cultural preservation, and holistic health promotion in Canada.
Community Centres
Buildings in cities like Hamilton, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, Kamloops, Vernon, Vancouver, Montreal . . . all post-redress . . . actual physical spaces, in Burnaby the Nikkei National Museum & Culture Centre is also home to the Nikkei National Museum, which was called the Japanese Canadian National Museum – the first national museum – also community orgs that operate out of rented spaces . . . .
Vancouver Japanese Language School
As the only prewar building returned to the community after the war in the former Powell Street community, the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall . . . still operates as a language school and Japanese Hall . . .
Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre
The Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre, on the site of the former New Denver internment site, is a project of the New Denver Kyowakai Society, which was until it finally disbanded in 2018 the only wartime Japanese Canadian internment organization still in operation. The centre’s purpose was to collect, conserve, research, exhibit and interpret objects that represent the life and conditions of the Nikkei living in the Orchard section of New Denver and surrounding West Kootenay internment camps between 1942 and 1957. Displays draw attention to global issues of racism, injustice and resilience. The centre was designated a National Historic Site in 2010.
Religious Organizations
Religious institutions—Buddhist temples and Christian churches—served as anchors for many Japanese Canadians after the war. As some of the only pre-war organizations to re-establish in the 1950s, they offered spiritual comfort, cultural and language classes, social gatherings, mutual aid, and advocacy against lingering discrimination. Temples and churches preserved heritage and offered continuity. In cities like Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Lethbridge, these spaces became vital community hubs—often the first rebuilt—where people could gather openly, rebuild networks, and begin collective healing.
Relighting the Cenotaph
On August 2, 1985, the lantern atop the Japanese Canadian Cenotaph in Stanley Park was relit by 98-year-old Sergeant Masumi Mitsui, who served in the First World War and fought in the Battles of Vimy Ridge and Hill 70.
The memorial lantern in Stanley Park, which was lit in 1920, had been extinguished during the wave of anti-Japanese racism in 1942.
Sergeant Mitsui was awarded a Military Medal for his leadership at Vimy and Hill 70. At the time of the ceremony we was one of the last surviving First World War soldiers. He passed away in 1987, months shy of his 100th birthday.
The Japanese Canadian War Memorial Committee has subsequently added the names of Japanese Canadians who died in the Second World War, Korean War and Afghanistan.
In October 2014, the memorial was refurbished, the dedication plaque was replaced, the limestone polished white and the petals on the base cleaned. In February 2015, with funding from Heritage BC’s Heritage Legacy Fund, cracks on the marble lantern were filled in and the glass windows were replaced with custom made panes to match the design of their originally established era. The Centenary of Enlistment was installed in 2016.
Work continues on the cenotaph, an important symbol of Japanese Canadian commitment to this country.
Festivals
Festivals play a key role is connecting community. The Powell Street Festival is Canada’s largest and longest-running celebration of Japanese Canadian arts and culture, held annually on the BC Day long weekend in August in and around Oppenheimer Park. It includes a wide range of activities, such as martial arts, taiko drumming, sumo, and craft markets. Other festivals across Canada include Haru Matsuri, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre’s spring festival in Toronto features traditional performances, martial arts, arts and crafts vendors, and other cultural activities. Other summer festival events are common in many Japanese Canadian communities, sometimes centred around obon, including Ottawa, Lethbridge, and Montreal.
Taiko
A example of Japanese culture that has become woven in to the post-war culture, particularly on the west coast is taiko. Taiko, the art of the Japanese drum, was introduced to North America in the late sixties and gradually spread throughout the United States and Canada as Americans and Canadians of Japanese descent took it up as a way to connect to their culture. Katari Taiko, Canada’s first taiko group was formed in 1979 following a performance by San Jose Taiko at that year’s Powell Street Festival. There are now many groups throughout Canada and the rest of North America, each with their own style and approach, and an important element of community festivals and events, bridging cultures and generations.
Recognizing Wrongs at Post-secondary Institutions
Systemic racism persisted in many schools and universities, with some institutions implementing quotas on the number of Japanese Canadians allowed, but from the 1950s, Japanese Canadians returned to universities, sometimes with scholarship support from organizations like the NAJC.
An example of recognizing wrongs is the 2012, the University of British Columbia awarded honorary degrees to those Japanese Canadians whose enrolment had been interrupted in 1942 due to the uprooting. The university pledged to educate future students about the history of Japanese Canadians and produced a book called “A Degree of Justice” with a collection of stories of the Japanese Canadian students.
