Sedai Corner - April 2011
May 12th, 2011
Sedai Corner
The Sedai Project is committed to collecting, documenting, preserving and sharing the history of the Japanese Canadians. We, the Sedai Committee, collect and preserve the Japanese Canadian history through audio and video recordings in a relaxed interview format. We continue to search for all Japanese Canadians who were born in the pre-war and war years to come and share their stories with us.
We express our sincere thoughts, hopes, and wishes to everyone who have been affected by the devastating occurrences in Japan. These events demonstrate how important family, friends, community, and history really are to a culture; this is the foundation of the Sedai project. We are deeply saddened for those who lost loved ones, friends, homes, and communities. We send our best wishes to everyone.
The Sedai Project is pleased to report on another successful month. As of March 31, 2011, 95 individuals have assisted us in documenting and preserving the Japanese Canadian history by sharing their stories with us in a Sedai interview. We would like to extend our heartfelt thank you to Dr. Arnold Arai, Margaret Adamson, Thomas and Shizue Matsui, Nori and Blanche Kanashiro, and Tomi Kadonaga for allowing us to preserve their unique stories.
Here are a few more questions to help you continue to develop and compose your story. Did you have a nickname when you were growing up? What was your favourite activity/sport/hobby? Did you create any games, or make any toys? What are some activities/sports/hobbies that you remember seeing or doing when you were growing up, that you don’t see the younger generations doing today? Remember, every story and life experience is unique to each individual and every story is important to our cultural heritage. Reminisce through photographs and documents to help refresh your memory and don’t dispose of them in the garbage. If you have items, documents and photographs that you no longer wish to keep please donate them to the JCCC Heritage. It is important for us to keep track of Heritage items so we ask that you please fill out a Donation Agreement Form.
The Sedai Project’s current goal is to complete over 100 interviews before the end of April 2011. We would like to ask those who have a story to please help us reach our goal and preserve the Japanese Canadian history for our future generations. Anyone who wishes to share their story or who wishes to learn more about our history as Japanese Canadians please contact Lisa Uyeda at 6 Garamond Court, Toronto, ON, M3C 1Z5 or lisa.uyeda@jccc.on.ca or info@sedai.ca or by telephone at 416-441-2345 ext 303. In the meantime you can also find more information about the project at www.sedai.ca.
We look forward to hearing from you!