Join scholars Masumi Izumi of Doshisha University and Emily Anderson of the Japanese American National Museum for a discussion about telling Japanese Canadian history on both sides of the Pacific. As the two work to translate Izumi’s sweeping history of Japanese Canadian experience—the most exhaustive study in this area to date—into English, they encounter challenges of language and of vastly different audiences. What is gained, and what lost, in translation?

Enjoy light refreshments and visit a pop-up exhibition featuring Past Wrongs, Future Choices artists. Participants are also encouraged to explore the museum.

For more than twenty years, the Nikkei National Museum’s Tomoshibi 灯 Journey Bus Tour has travelled to sites of Japanese Canadian incarceration in British Columbia. On these annual trips, people who lived through the ordeal of the 1940s, their descendants, and members of the wider public have learned a history of Canadian injustice and community resilience in the places where incarceration happened. In recent years, the tour has been enhanced through partnership with Past Wrongs, Future Choices, which invites students, teachers from across Canada, and international educators to join the tour as part of a course at the University of Victoria. 

Our panel explores what participants have learned in these experiences of history. Why return to places of past harm and trauma? Join us for a discussion among past participants from Australia, Canada, and the United States. The panel discussion will also be available virtually.