Interview with Mary Matsui

Title
Interview with Mary Matsui
Accession number
2010.059
Interviewer
Lisa Uyeda
Videographer
Lisa Uyeda
Date of Interview
Language
English
Description

Mary Matsui born in Vancouver on September 8, 1928. She talks about parents history. They emigrated from Shiga Prefecture in the early 1900s and they came to help build the railroad. Her father would go on to work in hotels, including Lake Louise Hotel. After that, they started a dry cleaning business in Kitsilano in Vancouver, where Mary went to the Japanese Language School. When WWII started, Mary was in grade eight. Mary talks about the discrimination faced by her and her Japanese Canadian classmates, including being excluded from cadets. She continued to talk about Hastings Park and her friends sleeping in stalls on the Expedition grounds, remembering the smell and the 8pm curfew. Mary talks about items being confiscated including stories of Japanese Canadians burying their china and other valuables as opposed to giving them up. She didn't hear a lot of complaining by parents about the injustice of their situation during the war. Mary talks about getting identification cards and her sister getting ready to go to Japan before the war. They went to Toronto, ON instead of interior BC. They lived in an apartment close to College and University until her father bought a house on Collier Street. Mary talks about living in Toronto and going to Jarvis Collegiate. After graduating, Mary became the first Japanese Canadian to teach in Toronto. 

Short clip from this interview: https://vimeo.com/384534374

Format
Videotape
Video File
Length of Interview
2hr 20 min
Period
Pre War
Post War
World War II
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
2000s
2010s
Location
Japan
Alberta, Canada
Kitsilano, BC
Vancouver, BC
Hastings Park, Vancouver
Toronto, ON
Topic
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR)
work
immigration
small business
Japanese language school
education
discrimination
curfew
relocation centres
Momiji
social activity
social life
education
career
religion
food
teaching
communities
issei
nisei
Number of Physical Tapes
2
Permission
For uses other than research or private study, researchers must submit a Request for Permission to Publish, Exhibit or Broadcast form.
Citation
Mary Matsui, interview by Lisa Uyeda, September 9, 2010, 2010.059, Sedai: The Japanese Canadian Legacy Project Collection, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.