The New Canadian

Background: Japanese Canadian Newspapers

By the 1930s, Vancouver was already home to three Japanese-language newspapers: Kanada Shinbun (Canada News or Canada Daily News), Tairiku Nippo (Continental Daily News) and Nikkan Minshu (The Daily People). These publications provided a population of Japanese immigrants with news from Japan as well as information about Canadian society and events. (See also Newspapers in Canada: 1800s-1900s; Immigration to Canada.)

The first English-language publication for the Japanese Canadian community was The New Age, founded in 1932. The New Age had a distinct audience: the Canadian-born and Canadian-educated children of Japanese immigrants, known as “second generation” or Nisei. The newspaper covered the founding of the Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (later the Japanese Canadian Citizen’s League (JCCL)) and voiced support for the organization, which sought the franchise for Japanese Canadians (see Right to Vote in Canada). The New Age lasted one year, and its successor, The Japanese Canadian, was also short-lived.

The New Canadian

Vancouver (1938–42)

Shinobu P. Higashi was the founding editor of The New Canadian. The newspaper's first two issues were published in 1938 after an initial trial issue appeared as a supplement to the Tairiku Nippo. (See also Newspapers in Canada: 1800s-1900s) In February 1939, it began bimonthly publication, independent of the Tairiku Nippo. Billing itself as “The Voice of the Second Generation”, the newspaper’s editorials positioned it as “rising from the ashes of two former second generation newspapers.” It supported the JCCL and asked readers to “fight on till we are recognized as worthy citizens in the national and political life of the country of our birth — Canada.”

Higashi departed the newspaper in April 1939 and was replaced by his former co-editor Thomas Kunito Shoyama (who took on the additional role of publisher in 1942–43). Under Shoyama, the newspaper began publishing weekly issues in September 1939.

Did you know?
Notable contributors of The New Canadian included geneticist Irene Uchida, writer and activist Muriel Kitagawa and Margaret Lyons, who became head of CBC's English radio.

In its early years, the newspaper also sought and received support from prominent non-Japanese Canadians. Nellie McClung was a subscriber whose messages of support were included in the publication. Henry Angus had excerpts from one of his lectures on the Far East published in The New Canadian.

In December 1941, the outbreak of war between Canada and Japan precipitated the closure of Japanese-language newspapers like the Kanada Shinbun, Tairiku Nippo and Nikkan Minshu. (See also Second World War.) The New Canadian increased its publication frequency to twice weekly and then three times weekly in January 1942. It also added a Japanese-language section, edited by Takaichi Umezuki, who had formerly worked for the Japanese-language Minshu newspaper. Both English and Japanese sections of the newspaper were subject to censorship by the Canadian government. Many columns were discontinued and content shifted towards hard news and updates.

In April 1942, The New Canadian became “the medium for official announcements by the [British Columbia Security] Commission,” the government entity responsible for overseeing the forced relocation of Japanese Canadians. The newspaper’s front page from 21 April 1942 announced that “As an important public service, ‘The New Canadian’ will be distributed free of charge.” This arrangement continued until July 1942, when the paper began charging subscription fees again but remained under wartime censorship. (See also War Measures Act; Internment of Japanese Canadians.)

Did you know?
In April 1942, the newspaper also changed its masthead, dropping the previous emphasis on the second generation. The New Canadian was now “an organ for information and expression among the people of Japanese origin resident in the Dominion of Canada.”

Kaslo (1942–45)

In 1942, the newspaper’s office moved to Kaslo, British Columbia, due to the forced relocation of Japanese Canadians. When the paper relaunched from Kaslo in November, it went back to weekly publication. It continued to circulate among Japanese Canadian communities and provide updates on communities dispersed across the Canadian provinces. The newspaper also continued to report on issues of political importance such as the dispossession of Japanese Canadian property (see Internment of Japanese Canadians).

Thomas Kunito Shoyama left the newspaper in June 1945 to enlist in the Canadian army, but continued on as publisher until at least November of that year. Kasey Oyama became the new English-language editor and moved the paper to Winnipeg.

Winnipeg (1945–48)

The New Canadian published its first edition from Winnipeg on 8 August 1945. According to assistant editor Frank Moritsugu, "The paper moved to Winnipeg to keep closer track of the postwar dispersal across the country." During this time, the paper continued to cover ongoing political issues that were of importance to Japanese Canadians, publishing a variety of articles, editorials and opinion pieces on different topics such as deportation to Japan, closure of internment camps, resettlement in Eastern provinces, Nisei serving in the Canadian army, and the development of the Canadian Citizenship Act (see Canadian Citizenship).

The newspaper grew from 8 to 12 pages in this time period. Takaichi Umezuki continued as Japanese-language editor, and Kasey Oyama as English editor with one assistant.

Toronto (1948–90)

The New Canadian published its first issue from Toronto on 12 May 1948. Proximity to the news “centres” of Toronto and Ottawa partially motivated the move. The 1948 relaunch of the Japanese-language newspaper Tairiku Nippo (under a new name, Tairiku Jiho) from Toronto may have also played a role. Takaichi Umezuki reportedly believed that publishing from Toronto would allow the newspaper to compete for advertisements and readers among the Japanese Canadian community.

The move was also part of ongoing efforts to stay connected to a national audience. An editorial asserted that the newspaper had "no intention of becoming an eastern or a Toronto newspaper. Our interests will continue to be national, and what takes place in Kamloops, or Lethbridge, or Regina, or Winnipeg will interest us as much as what takes place closer to this office".

Kasey Oyama left soon after the newspaper’s move to Toronto and Takaichi Umezuki continued on as Japanese-language editor and publisher. Ken Mori joined the staff in a business role in 1948 and became co-Japanese editor with Umezuki. The English editorship passed through a number of hands in the 1950s and early 1960s, including Toyo Takata and Ken Adachi, until Kei Casey Tsumura became editor (1963–90).

After Umezuki’s death in 1980, Mori became publisher and continued as Japanese editor until selling the newspaper to Japan Communications in spring 1990. The newspaper’s final edition was published in 2001.

Legacy

Even prior to the forced dispersal of Japanese Canadians, which scattered them from tight-knit west coast communities to regions across Canada, The New Canadian fostered a sense of collective identity among Japanese Canadians, especially the Nisei. As the newspaper’s once English editor, Victoria-born Toyo Takata, explained in a 1991 article for the Nikkei Voice, "The New Canadian was my introduction to the nisei world.…I developed a feeling of kinship with many other nisei whom I had never seen nor met, because their names appeared in The NC."

Aside from its role as primary disseminator of official information from the Canadian government to the Japanese Canadian community between 1942 and 1945, scholar Midge Ayukawa recalls The New Canadian as “the glue that held the Japanese Canadian community together” during the war years and postwar years.

Frank Moritsugu, who worked for The New Canadian variously as contributor and assistant editor from 1941 to 1948, argued in a 1991 article for the Nikkei Voice that "1990 brought an end to the newspaper that was the direct descendant of the optimistic publication for nisei.... The newspaper retains its original name but has been transformed editorially and geographically" from an English-language publication owned by grassroots community activists to a Japanese-language publication owned by a corporation.