The Kozuki Family: The First Japanese Canadian Family in the Cariboo Chilcotin

Materials

• K-W-L chart handout – K: know; W: wonder; L: learn
• Map of world handout
• Large world map for display
• Short video about the Second World War, countries involved, axis and allies, dates, background information

Activity

1. Introduce the topic.
   1. What do you know about the Second World War? What do you know about who was fighting?
   2. Have a short discussion with students and share some key points with the class.
2. Handout a K-W-L chart to each student and ask students to write down anything they know about the Second World War under the K (know) column of the K-W-L column chart.
3. Display a large world map on the board and hand out the map of the world sheet and ask students to label the listed countries and ocean on the map and list the axis and allies.
4. Have students think about some ideas to add to the W (wonder) column on the chart.
5. In closing the lesson, ask students to share out loud some things they know and some things they wonder about.
6. Show a short video to students to provide some background information about the Second World War (teacher’s choice).

Materials

• Whiteboard markers for whiteboard
• Short Video: David Suzuki’s recollection of his life in a Japanese Canadian internment camp
• Pencil Prompts Handout

Activity

1. Introduce the terms: internment and imprisonment
2. Put up terms on the board and explain how in 1942 the Canadian government declared all Japanese Canadians “enemy aliens.” Using the War Measures Act, they were forcibly removed from their homes and sent by trains “east of the Rockies,” to internment camps in the interior of BC, Alberta and further. Some people were sent to Japan.
3. Show a video featuring prominent Japanese Canadian David Suzuki, which outlines his experience in 1942, and recalls his family being ordered to go to Slocan, an internment camp.
4. Students take a writing prompt out of the basket, and then write a response on paper to share their thoughts and reactions. Pencil prompts:
   1. When you get home from school today, you are told you are an “enemy alien” in this country, and your family now has a curfew before it gets dark. The government has confiscated your family vehicle and business. You have to move into crowded segregated buildings at the PNE grounds (e.g. one was a livestock building for animals and you may be separated from family members). What are your thoughts, feelings, and questions upon hearing this news?
   2. b) When you get home from school today, you are told you will not be returning to school the next day because you have to pack a small suitcase and get on a train. You don’t know where you are going and you don’t even get to say goodbye to your friends. What will you pack and what will you leave behind?
   3. c) When you get home from school today, you are told your best friend is now an “enemy alien.” They are leaving on a train the next day and you may never see them again. Your life is still the same and you get to go to school and live freely but your best friend’s rights have been taken away. What would you say and how would you feel?
5. Tell students, in the next lesson, we will learn about the Kozuki family. They were able to get permission to go 600 miles north of Vancouver, to Williams Lake, instead of being forcibly sent to an internment camp. In a desperate attempt to keep their family together and try to survive on their own, they left Vancouver with no government help to arrive in the Cariboo Chilcotin during the cold winter of 1942.

Materials

• The Kozuki Family – the First Japanese Canadian Family in the Cariboo Chilcotin – slide presentation and a printout of slides 1-20 for each group of students, and video
• Map of Japan, which shows Hiroshima and Tottori
• Kozuki timeline image

Activity

1. Revisit the writing prompts from the previous lesson and ask some students to share their thoughts and feelings about that activity.
2. Introduce the story The Kozuki Family: The First Japanese Canadian Family in the Cariboo Chilcotin. Show and read slides 1-4 together introducing: Otojiro and Yoshino Kozuki from Hiroshima, Fred and Lily Kozuki (and her Yasuda family), and Harry Kozuki.
3. Show a map of Japan and indicate that the Kozuki family originated from Hiroshima, and the Yasuda family originated from Tottori. Also, show the Kozuki timeline.
   1. Teaching points: Many immigrants came to Canada from Japan and China in the late 1800s in search of a new life, for freedom, and to seek a better life. BC was known as “gold mountain” in Asia because gold was struck here in the 1880s. Immigrants came with very little money but they worked very hard to try to make a new life for their families and often sent money back to family in Asia. Canada represented a place of hope and safety – this is what they believed when they came here.
4. Hand out 5Ws response sheet and have each student choose one of the Kozuki family members to think about and complete the 5Ws (Who, What, When, Where, Why and How) information. Collect their writing. Express the point immigrants like the Kozukis and Yasudas contributed socially, economically, culturally to their communities before and after the war. We now live in a multicultural, diverse country as a result of our long history of immigration.

Materials

• The Kozuki Family – the First Japanese Canadian Family in the Cariboo Chilcotin (slides 5-11)
• Map of BC image
• Cause and effect handouts

Activity

1. Put the map of BC on the board and highlight Vancouver, Slocan, and Williams Lake. Tell students there is a federal law called the War Measures Act that was used during the Second World War to declare all Japanese Canadians “enemy aliens” in 1942. The Act gave the federal government broad powers to “maintain security and order during war.” However, this had devastating, long-lasting effects on all Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry, and many of them were born in Canada.
2. Give each student a cause and effect handout and ask students to read the following four slides: the war began, the Kozuki family: A self-supporting family, heading to the Cariboo Chilcotin, life in the Chilcotin. Have them think about the causes of the Kozuki family making the difficult decision to venture north (600 miles) to an isolated town (Williams Lake) in order to seek refuge, and consider what the effects of moving to such a place would be. Students can work in pairs or small groups of three to four to read over and take point-form notes.
3. Ask groups to choose one speaker in their group to share their ideas with the class. As the speakers read their notes, the teacher can jot the notes down onto a document projected onto the screen or on the board. Students will be encouraged to write down any new ideas on their own papers that they didn’t have.
   1. Teaching points: Some prompts could be, What do you think would be a cause for the government to send 22,000 Japanese Canadians to internment camps or labour camps, sell off their homes, fishing boats, and businesses? What would have caused Fred Kozuki to feel it would be better to go to an isolated farm up in Cariboo Chilcotin than to go to an internment camp? What was the effect of going to the farm rather than a camp? What were some of the effects of living in shacks? Why would some make the decision to move to an area of Canada that is unknown, or go to Japan during the war?

Materials

• The Kozuki Family – the First Japanese Canadian Family in the Cariboo Chilcotin (slides #13-18)
• Scraps of paper with four different numbers and enough rewards or treats for the class
• Open area for walking around and gathering in groups
• Letter to the editor handout
• K-W-L chart (from first lesson)

Activity

1. Read over the slide the Kozuki kids and discuss how difficult it was for Ed to be allowed to go to school due to the discrimination the Kozukis faced in the community. Ask students to imagine how they would feel if they were suddenly not allowed to go to school, especially if it was based on race, the colour of their skin, or cultural background.
2. Simulation activity. Ask students to spread out in an open area and give them each a scrap paper with a number on it. Tell them to walk around and find others with the same number. Tell them when to pause and find out who has made a connection and who has not. Next, ask two numbers to find each other. Pass out a reward or treat to that group without explanation. Ask another group to sit down. Then, ask the last group to leave the room while you give the third group their reward. After a short period of time, ask all students to return and sit down in a circle to have group discussion on how they felt in that simulation – positive and negative aspects. Hand out a reward to the fourth group.
   1. Teaching points. The idea is to simulate the feeling of being excluded or left out. Some students will be able to find groups and others will not. Ask questions such as, How does it feel to be in a group? How does it feel to be alone? Was it fair to receive a reward or to not receive a reward? Think of the reward as the “right to go to school.”
3. Read source materials “Life at the lake; Some Tribune snapshots, 1942-1949; A little history of the Williams Lake Tribune” and ask students to think about what they have read. Do you agree or disagree with the editor? Reflect on some of their thoughts about the newspaper articles. Ask students to write a short letter to the editor about their reactions to what they have just read.
4. Read source materials 1945, and “Life after the war,” and discuss how Lily’s family (the Yasudas) were impacted by living in Slocan and how the Kozuki family back in Hiroshima would have been impacted by the atom bomb. Emphasize how life would have been very difficult in all three places.
5. Wrap up the lesson by reading source materials “The golden years” and “Some Tribune snapshots, 1950-2005.” Over time, attitudes and perspectives changed toward the Kozuki family and Japanese Canadians.

Activity

Read the final slides together to conclude the story, and read and reflect on the final quotes. Students revisit their K-W-L chart and fill in the L (learn) part about some things they have learned in this unit.

As a summative assignment, ask students to write an essay on the history of Japanese Canadians. What did they learn in this unit? Have them draw on their reading and viewing experiences of the Kozuki family, or perhaps the experiences of another Japanese Canadian family.

Students will require a copy of the Interview with Ed Kozuki before proceeding with the activity. Teacher will need chart paper or other large format paper for each station in the jigsaw.

1. Provide a copy of Handout A6: Interview with Ed Kozuki for all students or small groups. Alternatively share the interview via projector for all students.
2. Organise students into small table groups of three to four. Assign each group to a different station. The number of stations can align with the number of interview questions (eight), or can be configured to fit the size of your table groups.
3. Have one student record the interview question on the chart paper and a second student the answer provided in the interview (alternatively this can be done by the teacher in advance of the lesson).
4. Once the questions and answers have been noted and read, tell each table group they have three minutes to reflect and make notes.
   • Post any thoughts they have about the question and answer and how this impacted Uncle Ed’s life.
   • Add a new question or questions that would extend our understanding of Uncle Ed’s life.
5. Move student groups through all stations, allow 30 to 40 minutes for this step.
6. Once students have had a chance to read and review the interview questions and answers, and add their thoughts and questions, table groups share some of the responses.
7. Students may remain in table groups or return to assigned seating and complete a written reflection. Students can consider the following writing prompts for their reflections.
   • • I was surprised to learn …
     • I was saddened to learn about …
     • If I were Mr. Kozuki at that young age, I would have felt …
     • If I could ask Mr. Kozuki a question, I would ask him …
8. Alternatively, students could be asked to write how they might feel being seen as an enemy in their own country, and of how it would feel to be forcibly uprooted and moved to a new home at a young age.

**Please note: you may have students in your class that have experienced forced uprooting and resettlement, and who carry lived trauma,. Caution should be exercised in such a case and an alternate activity for the student or class may be needed.**

Materials

• Interview with Ed Kozuki document
• Chart paper or other large format paper