Outgoing -- [1949] [Manuscript of Letters]

This file contains a textual record.

The file consists of handwritten manuscript of letters in Japanese with a front and back cover. Most letters were written to his former students. While a majority of the letters were written by Tsutae Sato, one letter was written by Mrs. Sato; therefore, it appears that these file folders were used by both Mr. & Mrs. Sato for the manuscript of all outgoing letters for tracking purposes as well as simply for the record.

One letter to his former student, who then lived in Japan, describes how this former student wrote in his letter that he lived without hope, with worries and depressed. Sato wrote that a majority of the Japanese in Japan must have felt in the same way; he was not the only one. Sato then provided the professional advice encouraging him to further his study.

One letter mentions that many of his friends and former students have moved to Toronto; therefore, the largest volume of correspondence was with Toronto.

Letters describe how Tsutae and Hanako Sato lived without running water, no sewer, no electricity, no bath, but lived healthy life. Tsutae worked on the farm owned by a college in the summer and chopping woods, carrying coal and water in the winter. He spent many hours reading and writing letters.

In one letter (to Iwasaki), Sato writes: [translation] "Japan lost in the war, but it does not mean all of the Japanese culture is lost. On the contrary, I consider that, now peace having been re-established, the economic and cultural exchange between Japan and Canada will be enhanced even more so than before the War." Therefore, he argues, there will be need for Japanese language schools in the future. Sato further writes that organizations of his countrymen are more concerned with recovering money and not paying enough attention to organizing and retaining intellectual assets. There must be hidden records of struggles for each organization. Unless they work to collect and keep those records now, these precious cultural treasures will be scattered and lost. It would be an important work to research the activities of various organizations when the Japanese were developing along the coast and leave them as written records.

Sato ends his letter with a haiku of Basho: [translation] "When I saw more carefully, I noticed there was nazuna flower growing on the fence." Nazuna flower is an ordinary weed and most people even do not notice its existence. However, it brings out emotion to a poet and might be an interesting specimen for a biologist.

In a letter to Ryotaro Nobuoka, Sato thanks his advice to move to the east (Toronto area), but he writes that the current living in Lacombe Alberta is suited for his writing projects.

In a letter to a former student (Sunahara), in response to Sunahara's question whether to proceed with the study to obtain a PhD, Sato gives detailed advice to go for it. He encourages Sunahara referring to Sunahara's shy and cautious personality while Sato's affection is felt throughout the letter.

In a letter to Meinosuke Ishihara who then lived in Japan, Sato describes that, as the result of the forced relocation in 1942, the highest number of the countrymen (Nikkei) now lived in Ontario (over 8,000); 6,000 in Toronto and 1,000 in Hamilton. Over 1,000 in Montreal. Next is in Alberta with about 4,000. About 1,000 in Winnipeg. About 6,000 in BC with many in the Okanagan Valley and along the CP Rail, e.g. Kamloops. Not many returned to Vancouver. He also wrote that the countrymen, who were poor during the "Coast days" with many children to raise, were now well off because all these children grew up and were now making good wages. In the postscript, he mentions that he sent chocolates by a separate mail.

Tsutae Sato was born in 1891 in the small village of Tanagura machi, Fukushima-ken, Japan. Mr. Sato attended the primary school of the village, followed by studies in Chinese classics at a private school. A short term Normal School opened and he continued his education there. After graduating at the age of sixteen, Tsutae found employment as a teacher at a local primary school. He only taught at this school for one year when he decided to pursue his own academic career by enrolling at Aoyama 師範学校 Teacher Training School (or Normal College) in Tokyo where he studied for four years from April 1909 to March 1913. After graduation, he again worked as a teacher, this time at Shibuya Primary School for four years. While teaching there he received an invitation for employment from the Vancouver Japanese Language School which he accepted and arrived in Vancouver in 1917. Tsutae was the fifth principal of the school. There were about 150 students registered at the Vancouver school when Mr. Sato took over as principal. However, the enrollment rapidly increased especially after 1936 to over 1,000 in 1941, when the school was ordered by the Canadian government to close in December 1941.

Mr. Sato's wife, Hanako, was born in 1901 in Wakayama-ken Japan, but moved to Tokyo when she was only a year old. Then her family moved to Niigata when she was about kindergarten age, and a few years later to Toyama. Her father was a medical doctor, and the family moved with him from one city to another as he frequently relocated. Finally, however, the family settled down in Tokyo. Hanako was a graduate of Tokyo Women's Teacher Training School (current Tokyo Gakugei University) and, like Mr. Sato, taught at a Primary school in Tokyo. In 1921, Hanako came to Canada as a teacher on the invitation of the Japanese Language School of Vancouver, four years after Tsutae arrived. Tsutae and Hanako had known each other and they were married just prior to Hanako's departure for Canada in 1921.

As part of their accomplishments, Tsutae and Hanako were responsible for upgrading and improving the quality offered by the Japanese Language School. They were also the ones primarily responsible for the establishment of the Japanese Canadian Language Schools Federation, as well as for the addition of a larger school building.

The Japanese Language Schools Federations functioned until 1941 when the Pacific War broke out. It fostered a peaceful and harmonious relationship between Japanese schools, thus strengthening the Japanese community as a whole.

During the forced uprooting, Mr. and Mrs. Sato spent eleven years at Lacombe, Alberta, from 1942 to 1952. During this time they managed to travel to practically all of the places where their former students resettled in order to comfort them and encourage them.

In 1952, the Satos returned to Vancouver and resumed their roles as the Principal and teacher of the Vancouver Japanese Language School, until 1966, when they retired.

Mr. Sato's contribution to the society of Canada as a whole was recognized by the Canadian government on July 1978, when he was named a member of the Order of Canada.

Hanako Sato died in Vancouver, May 4, 1983; Tsutae Sato three weeks later on May 23, 1983.

No digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.