A Portrait of Reverend Shimizu's Sunday School Class from the Powell St. United Church; Vancouver, BC

From this item, LOI has digitized a textual record.

The image shows four rows of boys and girls posing before the doorway of a building. In the back row from left to right they are Hajime Kinoshita, Gordon Yamashita, unidentified,unidentified, Bob Nimi, Tomi Kaguyama, unidentified, Shoji Nishihata and unidentified. In the third row from left to right they are unidentified, unidentified, Lawrence Iwasaki, Ray Aoyama, Tatsuo Sakamoto, Minoru Ebisuzaki, Mamoru Watanabe, unidentified, Hiromu Sakiyama and Yoji Murase (cousin to Ray Aoyama). In the second row from left to right they are unidentified, unidentified, unidentified, Grace Eiko Thomson (nee Nishikihama), unidentified, Louise Okawara, unidentified, Miyako Otsu and unidentified. In the front row from left to right they are unidentified, unidentified, unidentified and Yohko Noda.

The photograph was taken on June 16, 1939.

Komajiro Nishihata was a pioneer who came Vancouver in 1901. He left his home town of Echigawa cho, Shiga ken during the immigration boom. Komajiro's twin sons, Saburo and Jiro were born April 12, 1899 but remained in Echigawa cho, to acquire middle school education in Japan. They lived with an aunt until they graduated and came to Canada together on August 21, 1914 on board the Canada Maru. Immigration laws had tightened and the boys' father sponsored by Komajiro Nishihata from Big Bay near Comox, BC, and lived with him until 1921. Afterwards, the family was reunited and lived together near Port Moody, where Komajiro worked at the Port Moody Sawmill.

The digital copies of the records were acquired by the Landscapes of Injustice Research Collective between 2014 and 2018.

This record was digitized in full.