Geography and racism

The teacher will organize students into small table groups. These can vary based on the size of your class.

**Please note the maps contain racist language and terms used in the 1940s. It is strongly recommended you have a conversation about racism and cultural sensitivity before proceeding with this lesson**

1. Provide one copy of Handout 1.1: Learn from maps. Alternatively you can assign this as a table group task and have each group complete one copy of the handout.
2. Next provide each table with four maps, sources 1.1 through 1.4.
3. Students or groups then examine the four maps and answer the questions provided. You may wish to stop the work at various moments and have students or groups share some of the things they notice about the maps.
4. Students or groups share their findings.
5. Connect the learning to the big ideas noted in the lesson overview.
6. Optionally, have student(s) from each table group make notes on a large piece of chart paper and post this as a summary of learning for the lesson.

Summary

The premise of this lesson is to establish that Japanese Canadians in Vancouver had a sense of place, and were subject to racism before the events of the Second World War. The focus on Powell Street and Oppenheimer Park especially are important to future lessons in this unit as a place of peaceful demonstration and culture. Show students the map of Vancouver Downtown Eastside used in the previous activity.  Ask them where they think historic Japantown is situated within the map of the Downtown Eastside. Explain Japantown was not a name used by Japanese Canadians, rather they called it Paeru, or Nihonmachi. While engaged in these lesson activities try to remind your students to use these period correct names.

Note: This lesson may take longer than one 45-minute block. Depending on the inquiry and level of depth of information, please plan appropriately for potentially three classes. A tablet or computer is required for students to complete this activity. The 360° Riot Walk includes a virtual tour that can be taken while on-site in the Powell Street neighbourhood. While optional, it would provide a much deeper and rich learning experience for students.

1. Begin the lesson with the questions: Who has been to the Powell Street festival? What do they know about Oppenheimer Park? Show them the Pacific National Exhibition Fairgrounds. Who has been to the PNE?
2. Introduce the larger topic, the 1907 riots. Then give students access to the 360 Riot Walk map. Allow time to discover and explore.
3. Students might need a more significant jumping-off point in order to identify important areas of note for Japanese Canadians. Using the Heritage Vancouver document, the teacher can pinpoint important addresses such as 475 Alexander Street (Japanese Hall), the Tamura Building (394-396 Powell Street), also known as the New World Hotel, the 200 block of Jackson Street, and Oppenheimer Park.
4. In groups, students should have an abundance of yellow sticky notes. They should choose a map point, listen to the tour, and look at the pictures and overlapping images. They should take notes.
   • Where is the street located?
   • Is there important information about who was living there, their lives, and what their businesses were.
   • How was the area impacted by the anti-Asian riots?
   • When done (could be multiple lesson times to focus on more or less streets), students will put their notes on a map in the classroom to outline the Paeru area in Vancouver.
   • Debrief and discuss the events of incarceration, and changes in downtown Vancouver over time. What do students notice? Observations might include the removal and decline of Japanese businesses, and displaced families.

Unpack some of the learning moments from the previous lesson. Using the Heritage Vancouver notes, teacher and students are reminded that various peoples have lived in the Powell Street area, including Indigenous Peoples. Remind students the growth of the Powell Street area by Japanese Canadians, while significant, came at the expense of local Indigenous Peoples who had settled on the land from time immemorial. The displacement of Indigenous Peoples is an overarching story that connects the history of the Powell Street neighbourhood to contemporary times.

1. Bring students back to the article written in Heritage Vancouver that highlights the significance of this neighbourhood to the Japanese Canadian community.
2. Share (print or show digitally) three images depicting life in the Powell Street neighbourhood prior to 1942.
   • Source 3: 1939 parade
   • Source 3.2: 1907 riot
   • Source 3.3: Yama Taxi
3. Ask the students to think about what each image tells them about the neighbourhood at that time. What can they glean about life in the Powell Street area?
4. If you recall any student(s) that have attended the Powell Street Festival, or others that have been in and around Oppenheimer Park, ask them to consider how the neighbourhood appears today. What has changed?
5. As you transition to the collage activity, you should share some basic facts about the forced uprooting, internment, dispossession, and exile of Japanese Canadians in the 1940s. Students will then consider this event within the larger context of change within the Downtown Eastside and the Powell Street area.
6. Design a collage.
   • Provide students with Handout 3.1: Nihonmachi collage.
   • Remind students, a collage is a visual representation of an idea or concept. The idea this activity presents is the changing face of the Powell Street neighbourhood.
   • Students will create a collage (individually or in pairs) that shows the changing face of this neighbourhood from the turn of the 20th century to current day. Students could collage text and/or photos from the area (Powell Street, Jackson Avenue, Cordova, Dunlevy, Alexander Street etc.). They will overlap original photos and/or news headlines of the area to show its fluctuation of growth socially, culturally, and economically.
   • The following sites offer images and information that support this activity, but others are available on this site.
     • Haspel, Karl. “Parade on Powell Street” image CVA AM1663- CVA 300-136. 1936-138. https://heritagevancouver.org/top10-watch-list/2017/9-powell-street-area-nihonmachi/
     • Leong, Alphonse. “Powell Street Festival announces it won’t displace people living in Oppenheimer Park.” July 4, 2019. The Georgia Straight.
       Building damaged during Vancouver riot of 1907 – 130 Powell Street, $139. 1907. https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/jphotos/items/1.0048857
     • Japanese Canadian photograph collection. UBC Open Collections.
       Aerial view of Oppenheimer Park. https://wiki.ubc.ca/Oppenheimer_Park
     • Asahi team photo taken on the Powell Street Grounds in 1926. Photo: Japanese Canadian National Museum 2010.17.1.55 https://montecristomagazine.com/community/80-years-ago-vancouver-home-one-baseballs-successful-teams-japanese-asahis
     • November 24, 2020. Vancouver anti-Asian riots of 1907 and the parallels to Canada’s modern-day racial divide. Library and Archives Canada. Sir Wilfred Laurier University. https://www.wlu.ca/news/spotlights/2020/nov/vancouver-anti-asian-riots-of-1907-and-the-parallels-to-canadas-modern-day-racial-divide.html
     • Two children looking in a window of a closed-up Japanese store in Vancouver, B.C., circa 1942. (Photo: Jack Lindsay, City of Vancouver Archives, 1184-1587). https://www.chemainusvalleycourier.ca/community/broken-promises-exhibit-on-at-cowichan-valley-museum-1290233
     • Nikkei National Museum database: Search the collection

Alternate activity:

• If time is tight and access to technology more limited consider adjusting the activity to the creation of a postcard from Powell Street.
• Students create a postcard, drawing on influences, landmarks, and streets from the area. On the flip side of the postcard, students gain perspective by writing what it might be like living in that time and place, as well as the disruptive nature of being forcibly removed. What feelings do they think those that lived it went through?

In this activity students will select one player from the Asahi baseball team and complete a player profile card using Handout 4.1.

• Depending on the time allocated, have students learn more about the Asahi by watching one of:
  • Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story (NFB, 50 minutes) or
  • Remembering the story and impact of the Vancouver Asahi (Toronto Blue Jays, five minutes)
• Debrief the film(s) and introduce the baseball player profile assignment.
  • Provide each student with Handout 4.1: Baseball card template
  • Instead of baseball stats, students can focus on the formation of the team, significant events, playing Anglo teams, overcoming racism, and why the team became so important to the community over several generations.
  • Students can follow individual stories such as catcher Ken Kutsukake, Kaye Kaminishi, Ty Suga, and others.
  • Criteria should include important locations, the conditions of the Hastings Heritage Grounds, and the different camps in the interior.
  • There are a large number of sources, images, and videos about the team. However, one book with biographies of many of the Asahi players across timelines is:
    • Asahi: A Legend in Baseball, by Adachi, Pat. (1992). Asahi: A Legend in Baseball. Available at Nikkei National Museum.
    • Detailed information on the long history and players can be found on the Asahi Baseball website.
  • Complete the activity by highlighting the Asahi baseball team has been revived under the title of the New Asahi with a new generation of players wearing the colours, and logo of the team.

Stealing Home by J. Torres. A graphic novel of a young baseball fan who is forcibly removed with his family to an internment camp. Students either read the graphic novel together, or have the teacher share the story in class. Introduce the novel study by reminding students Japanese Canadians were forcibly uprooted from the coast of B.C., in 1942. The forced uprooting included women, men, and children regardless of age or health. Children were permitted one suitcase, and had to live under difficult circumstances regardless of which internment site they settled at.

Instructions for activities:

1. Provide students with Handout 5.1: Suitcase template.
   • What would you take in one suitcase? Remind students they can only bring what fits in this suitcase to a maximum of 70 pounds.
   • Students draw the most-important items they planned to take with them if they were forced to move.
   • Alternatively, students create and cut construction paper items or fold origami-style items into their suitcase.
2. Map of the camp.
   1. Students draw a map of the camp, and include buildings, gardens etc., Add key items to the legend such as the distance Sandy travelled, or for deeper connections following the last lesson, from Vancouver Asahi to camps such as Slocan, Lillooet, or further.
3. Build a shoebox diorama of Sandy’s cabin or the camp itself and surrounding area.
   1. It would highlight the harsh conditions as well as highlight the hardships of those interned.
      1. For example, by building a cabin based on Sandy’s observations, students visually see the cramped and demoralising quarters of multiple families squashed into one cabin.
   2. One could compare access to food based on location and small gardens, and how the quantity and quality would change the incarcerated Japanese Canadian diets, and how challenging it would be to maintain food culture in disparity.

Bibliography
Torres, J ,and Namisato, David. “Stealing Home”. Kids Can Press. October 5, 2021.