An Archaeology of Asian Transnationalism

Preface

xiii Preface In 1896, Jinsaburo Oikawa, a Japanese entrepreneur from what is now the village of Towa-cho in Miyagi Prefecture, set sail for Vancouver, Canada (Nitta 1998). At 42, he temporarily left his wife and two children behind to follow up on a potentially lucrative lead in the burgeoning Fraser River salmon industry. After spending a year working as a fisherman and logger to gain local experience, in 1898 Oikawa established his own salmonfishing and export business with a partner and a small crew of fellow Japanese migrants along the south arm of the Fraser River. Over the next several years Oikawa returned to Japan twice to collect his family, set up a business to handle his exports of salted salmon and roe from Canada, and recruit additional workers from his home prefecture. After his wife took ill and died, Oikawa remarried and had two more children in Canada, and the small fishing community of about 30 moved to nearby Don Island adjacent to the Ewen Salmon Cannery on neighboring Lion Island. The cannery, one of the largest of its kind in British Columbia, housed a multiethnic seasonal workforce and included a Chinese bunkhouse that could accommodate up to 100 men. In 1906, to circumvent strict conscription and emigration laws, Oikawa devised a secret plan to smuggle more than 80 people out of Japan in a vessel disguised as a fishing boat. His plan backfired and all the passengers and crew aboard the Suian Maru were arrested and detained upon arrival on Vancouver Island. However, in part as a result of deft political negotiations by the Japanese Consulate, the passengers were permitted to remain in Canada on the condition they work on the railroad for one year. Some eventually settled on Don Island, but many found work elsewhere. In subsequent years Oikawa managed to find legal loopholes permitting him to bring an additional 80 people to Canada, by which time the population of the Don Island community fluctuated between 70 and 100 men, xiv Preface women, and children. By 1914, however, the community was struggling economically, and in 1916 Oikawa’s eldest son, Taijiro, took over management of the business while Taijiro’s parents and youngest sister returned to Japan permanently, where Jinsaburo Oikawa died in 1927. Nevertheless , the business limped on until the mid-1920s or early 1930s, when the Don Island community was gradually depopulated as fishermen and their families relocated to the mainland following the closure of the cannery after the 1930 season. Some remained in Canada permanently, while others , as Jinsaburo Oikawa had done, returned home to live out their lives in Japan. In 2006, the Japanese Canadian National Museum (now the Nikkei National Museum) in Burnaby, British Columbia, hosted centennial celebrations commemorating the Suian Maru episode and the lives of Jinsaburo Oikawa and the Don Island fishing community. The celebrations included the opening of an exhibit of objects, photographs, and documents associated with Oikawa recently donated to the museum by his descendants in Japan. This exhibit was accompanied by a reunion of Suian Maru descendants from across Canada and Japan, a lecture series and panel discussion on the history of the community, a formal dinner and boat tour of the islands, and the ceremonial unveiling of a commemorative plaque and planting of cherry trees on the mainland opposite Don Island. In 2005, I was in search of a local research project suitable for addressing relationships between material things and the everyday lives, social identities, and consumer habits of minority immigrant communities. A mutual acquaintance put me in touch with members of the Suian Maru Centennial Committee who were in the process of planning the events for 2006 and encouraged me to initiate archaeological investigations on the islands, which had become an important touchstone for the local Japanese Canadian community. This serendipitous conjunction of interests provided me with a research focus and an opportunity to take part in the centennial celebrations as a guest and a participant in the panel discussion , where I was able to report on preliminary findings of my fieldwork. I maintained a relationship with the museum throughout my research and returned three years later as a guest speaker to present an update based on my completed project. This book in many ways represents the fulfillment of my commitment to the Japanese Canadian community in that it allows me to present my ultimate findings in a relatively accessible format xv...