Nikkei Memory Capture Project

Exploring the challenges faced by people of Japanese descent living in Canada
Nikkei memory capture time map
The Nikkei Memory Capture Project (NMCP) is a collaborative oral history project that aims to incite, record, preserve, and share memories that narrate the cultural and social history of Canadian Nikkei (people of Japanese ancestry) across the 20th and 21st centuries. It is situated in the southern region of the Province of Alberta, which is home to one of Canada's largest and most dynamic Nikkei populations.
The NMCP has engaged with over 150 individuals who have generously shared their pasts, and is partnered with key community stakeholders. With its innovative 'Talking History<>Seeing History' approach and ethos of 'returning the stories', the NMCP innovates oral history methods and co-creative initiative.
Location: Southern Alberta, Canada
Dates: 2017–present
NMCP co-leaders: Dr Darren Aoki (University of Plymouth), Professor Carly Adams (University of Lethbridge)
NMCP research team: UK- and Canada-based PhD, MA, and BA students
Institutional partners: University of Lethbridge, Canada; Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden; Galt Museum & Archives (2017–2018)
Nikkei Memory Capture Project
Funded by:
  • Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council – Insight Grant: CDA 143,856 / GBP 85,000
  • Arts and Humanities Research Council UK – Impact Accelerator Account Fellowship: GBP 18,482.60
  • Community Foundation – Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta Community Priorities: CDA 15,000 / GBP 8,750
  • Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge and Area Grant: CDA 5,500 / GBP 3,245
Prize competitions:
  • 2023 Governor General of Canada’s Prize in History: Excellence in Community Programming – Shortlist
 
The Nikkei Memory Capture Project explores the Japanese Canadian past through a range of research topics and initiatives:
  • Generational histories
  • Inter-generational transmission of cultural identity and heritage
  • Inter-racial intimacy
  • Sport and leisure
  • Food and culture
  • Spirituality
  • Discrimination and racism
  • Family histories
  • Public history
The NMCP emphasises resilience, especially as it learns about peoples’ achievements and failures, disappointments and struggles, aspirations and hopes.  
Research Excellence Framework 2028 – History Unit of Assessment
With its extensive collaborative engagements in the wider community, the NMCP is increasingly recognised for the impact its research is generating locally, nationally, and internationally. In 2028, it will be submitted to the REF as a History Unit of Assessment Impact Case Study.
Methodology: 'Talking History<>Seeing History'
The NMCP researches and deploys a range of 'talking history' methodological approaches, including oral history (life story, topic-driven life story, object/image-driven life story, feminist); group interviews (focus groups, pair interviews, story circles); and most recently, digital storytelling (StoryCenter, facilitated storytelling). 
At the heart of our methodology is 'Talking History<>Seeing History' (THSH). In this approach, 'talking history' refers to oral history, which represents the first step to remembering the past by speaking about it. 'Seeing history' invites the people we meet to visualise their history through a range of materials and methods, such as photographs, illustration, and filmmaking. When combined, 'talking history' and 'seeing history' generate compelling outputs whose stories are powerfully shared.  
THSH also lies at the centre of extensive interdisciplinary, interdepartmental, collaborative work across the University and the wider UK South West.
Ethos: 'Returning the Stories'
Central to the NMCP's commitment to co-creation is its ethos of 'Returning the Stories', which it has pioneered. This seeks to emphasise and approach our participants as history experts. In this light, our participants can engage in the entire process of creating public history knowledge from planning to sharing. They help to shape the impact their history can make on our heritage awareness and inclusiveness in Canada’s diverse civic and cultural space.
  • Bunka Centre

    Bunka Centre

  • NMCP

    Traditional dance

  • NMCP

    Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden

  • NMCP

    Tosh Kanashiro

  • Dr Darren Aoki and Dr Carly Adams have been exploring the challenges faced by people of Japanese descent living in Canada

    Interactive sound booth

 

Historical background: Canada's mass internment of its Japanese Canadian citizens

Starting in 1942, the Canadian government's response to Imperial Japan's attack on the United States and the British Empire's colonies in East and Southeast Asia involved the systematic mass internment of over 22,000 people of Japanese ancestry in Canada – nearly 90% of this population. The majority of these people were born or naturalised Canadian citizens, many of whom had never been to Japan. They were expelled from their homes on the West Coast and removed to a variety of incarceration and internment sites around the country, including over 3,500 who were displaced to the province of Alberta to work sugar beet farms in labour gangs. They were dispossessed of their property, stripped of their civil rights, classified as 'enemy aliens', their communities were destroyed, and their families were often apart. The official rationale for the initiative was to safeguard national security – however, on the admission of the Prime Minister, not one Japanese Canadian was ever found guilty of seditious activity. Although the war ended in 1945, their rights were not restored until 1949, and attempts by the government to mass deport them to Japan had been made.
Against this backdrop, the NMCP asks the following pertinent questions:
  • What happened in the decades after the war – how did people, families, and communities recover, if at all?
  • Within just over a generation, Japanese Canadians not only seemed to have shed their wartime stigma, but they seemed to have become highly desirable, with over 90% marrying outside their community by the end of the 20th century. Why?
  • Southern Alberta was home to the third largest population of Japanese Canadians during and after the war, but why has it received hardly any attention or recognition?  
  • What does Japanese Canadian mean?
  • Is the trauma of war – 'damage-centred' or 'deficit-centred' history – the only way to understand the Japanese Canadian experience? Can the NMCP find spaces outside of the shadow of war?
"I don't want to be remembered [in history] as a victim. I don't want to be remembered only by or in terms of the suffering of the war years. I built things, created the future, had fun, and moved forward looking to the future."
(Anonymous, 2018)
The NMCP Team collaborates with individuals, deploying a variety of oral history methods and approaches, including life-story interviews, group interviews, long-term interview engagements, and digital storytelling. To date, the researchers have met with over 100 interviewees and have heard hundreds of hours of oral history testimony.
Nikkei Memory Capture Project meeting

Partnership with key regional and national stakeholders

Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden

We are represented on its Board and played an instrumental role in the collaborative development of the Bunka Centre (Japanese Culture Centre), its exhibition and experience programming, civic mission and ethos, and role as custodians of Japanese Canadian heritage and Ambassadors of Nikkei culture.  

Nikkei Cultural Society of Lethbridge & Area (NCSLA)
We are currently completing an academic-public history monograph that explores for the first time the unique history of southern Alberta’s Japanese Canadian communities. This is funded by the NCSLA and meets the organisation's key constitutional aim of promoting awareness of Nikkei history. 

Buddhist Temple of Southern Alberta

We are collaborating on several initiatives with this religious organisation, which historically represents one of the main religious traditions of Japanese who migrated to North America and their descendants. Focusing on spiritual practice, meaning, and ethos, our digital story-telling work takes an innovative approach to exploring the wider social and cultural history of this visible minority community. 

Past Wrongs, Future Choices

The NMCP is one of the founding signatories of this transnational/trans-Pacific research and arts network, which explores the experience of the Japanese diaspora, especially the persecution it suffered in nations around the Pacific Rim. We are currently working on a number of projects as part of this network. 

Digital stories

The Nikkei Memory Capture Project seeks to 'return the stories' of Japanese Canadians in southern Alberta through digital storytelling. These digital stories use multimedia tools, video, images, sounds, and words, to capture moments and bring oral history narratives to life.