TO: THE VANCOUVER PARK BOARD
FROM: Rick Shiomi
5436 Clinton Ave. S.
Minneapolis, MN 55419
DATE: 4/15/08
RE; The Cherry Trees in Oppenheimer Park
Dear Sir/ Madam,
It has come to my attention that the Park Board has a new development plan that would involve the removal of the memorial cherry trees planted in Oppenheimer Park by members of the Japanese Canadian community in 1977. In the strongest terms possible I advise against such an action.
I was a part of that original ceremony and the coordinator for a number of the early Powell Street Festivals and I feel strongly about maintaining the historical recognition of the Japanese Canadian community in that neighborhood. My grandfather walked those streets in the early 1900’s and my father played in Oppenheimer Park as a young boy. So for me, my connection to that area is deep and powerful.
I understand that times change and neighborhoods change along with them, but in some way those cherry trees represent a truly historical tie to a rich and important legacy not only for Japanese Canadians, but for all Canadians. It is a legacy that is connected to the Japanese Canadian pioneers who helped develop the forestry and fishing industries of British Columbia, to the people who were unjustly moved to internment camps and to those who returned and ultimately demanded and achieved redress and reparations from the Canadian government. All this history is tied to those cherry trees and that park, and so I strongly support keeping those trees in the park and designating the park an official heritage site.
It would be a terrible blow to our history and culture to remove those trees and we would all be diminished by this action. I would be happy to speak with you in regards to this letter and you can contact me at 612-823-8631.
Yours,
Rick Shiomi
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Save the Cherry Trees
A comment by Terry Watada
On April 16, 1977, over seventy Nikkei seniors participated in the tree-planting ceremony at the inauguration of the refurbished Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s east end. They planted eight trees in the park they once called Powell Ground to join thirteen others planted earlier by Park Board employees on behalf of the seniors. It was an auspicious day, because the city recognized the legacy of the Japanese and Japanese Canadian presence in the Powell Street area prior to World War II. Unfortunately, the city now plans to upgrade the park again, which means the sakura trees will be uprooted, removed, and destroyed.
It is an unconscionable act and unfathomable to boot. Why remove such beauty in such a blighted area? It’s no secret that the east end suffers from drugs and crime. The trees in some small way offer some respite from the daily grind of existence.
Politicians and civil servants too are forever concerned with “optics”. Though it may not be true, the public may equate the loss of the imported Japanese trees as symbolic of the arbitrary and opportunistic uprooting of the Japanese Canadians almost seventy years ago. Does the Parks Department really want to be in the same company as the racist governments of the past?
It is clear the plan to remove the trees is a case of cultural insensitivity or perhaps pure ignorance on the designer’s part and those consulted. It does not mean, however, that the plan has to be carried through to its catastrophic end. The trees and memorial stone with the plaque must be saved for the pleasure of all who visit the park especially in the spring; for the enlightenment of Canadian citizens who come to learn of the trees’ significance; and most importantly, for the Nikkei seniors who saw their trust in the Canadian people re-established and grow with the trees over the final years of their lives.
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April 21, 2008
To: Vancouver Park Board Commissioners, Mayor Sam Sullivan, Vancouver
City Council, Debra Barnes
Subject: Save the Legacy Sakura Trees in Oppenheimer Park
It has just come to my attention, in a letter distributed by Takeo Yamashiro (see below), that the lovely cherry blossom (sakura) trees in Oppenheimer Park are to be removed in a redevelopment plan. This park, informally called the Powell Street grounds by the Japanese
Canadians who lived in the area prior to their internment, had huge social and community value for them. As is now well known in Canadian history texts, their community was dismantled and utterly destroyed by the racist policies of the federal government during the 1940s. The 1988 Redress Agreement reached between the National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Canadian government constituted an official acknowledgement of the enormous injustices inflicted on Japanese Canadians.
Back in 1977, Japanese Canadians all across Canada celebrated their centennial, and one of the most meaningful and endearing projects during that year was the planting of the sakura trees in Oppenheimer Park by seniors who were associated with Tonari Gumi, a Japanese
Canadian seniors drop-in centre. I remember this project very well, and many of us gained strength from the presence of the trees in the park during our lengthy redress struggle in the 1980s. It has remained for me a crucial memorial site in the postwar reclamation of our history, dignity, and pride. For the Japanese Canadians whose citizenship rights were abrogated and who were dispossessed, the trees embody their once tangible historical presence in a section of
Vancouver formerly known as Nihon-machi or Japantown.
I find it astonishing — and hugely upsetting — that no one, during the research and consultation process, would have taken the necessary steps to ensure the preservation of the trees and the memorial site as a sign of respect for the history and memory of Japanese Canadians. If the trees are uprooted, then the action will no doubt be read as a reminder, not simply of an unfortunate casuality of remodelling, but of the mass uprooting of Japanese Canadians — in
other words, of the erasure of a memorial that stands for their prewar and postwar community. Please act responsibly and justly to save this memorial site.
Sincerely,
Roy Miki, C.M.
SFU Professor Emeritus
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To Whom It May Concern
It has taken me a lifetime to begin to understand the significance of
Japanese cherry trees — the hallmark and symbol of friendship. The
issei, who planted the cherry trees in the park at Powell Street
gave us their deepest values of love and forgiveness and friendship as a sacred
trust forever, a living and life-giving sign of their best intentions
for their children, their country, Canada, and the future.
I join with Takeo Yamashiro and with all who passionately honour this most
important ongoing legacy, that the spirit of the issei may be present and never
disappear from among us.
Joy Kogawa
