hakujin
Caucasian, or white person
haiseki
discrimination, prejudice
batsu
Japanese gesture of crossing arms to mean no
ki-chigai geechan
crazy old man
baka
stupid
konnichiwa
hello
tatami
Japanese straw floor mat
Yamoto Damashii
True Spirit of Japan
sayonara
goodbye
Sode Boshi
Kimono Sleeve in the Sky Constellation
sumi
solid rectangular stick of ink
suzuri
ink stone for grinding stick into water
fude
kami
Japanese painting paper
chokuhitsu
Basic sumi-e stroke — vertical brush stroke
sokuhitsu
Basic sumi-e stroke — slanted brush stroke
hatusyume
the new year
geta
high wooden shoes with thongs
Ikebana
Japanese flower arranging
Haiku
type of Japanese poetry
“Najii des’ka?”
“Do you have a watch?”
majnai
trick that brings good fortune
Haru Matsura
Spring Flower Festival
hanten
housecoat
sakura
cherry blossom
drum
niwatori
chickens
dame ohsi
second time — to make sure
Obon
Buddhist Lantern Festival
Author’s Note
Growing up, I knew nothing of the treatment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. History books concealed how the government left them penniless, homeless, and without a future. My admiration goes out to all the brave Japanese-Canadian men and women who kept their families fed, clothed, and educated without funds or bitterness.
Mrs. Morrison, Clarence, George, and the rest of the townspeople are fictional. The names of the Japanese families are changed, but the people involved are real. My mother-in-law, Eiko Kitagawa Maruno, allowed me to explore her life through photographs and memories. To see their life in the ghost town, my husband and I travelled to the Kootenays to visit the Japanese Memorial Centre in New Denver. Thanks to Noburo Hayashi, caretaker and interpreter, who helped us find Nelson Farm and the original railway tracks.
I am grateful to Sylvia McConnell for accepting my first manuscript, When the Cherry Blossoms Fell, which began the Cherry Blossom series. Thanks go to the team at Dundurn for continuing the story of Michiko and her family.
To my avid readers, Susan Onn, Nancy Wannamaker, and Brenda Julie, thank you for asking the right questions and being part of my later-life career as an author.
To Stan, my husband, David and Erin, my children, and my friend Anne More, thank you for your never-ending support and encouragement.
Copyright © Jennifer Maruno, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.
Editor: Cheryl Hawley
Design: Jesse Hooper
Epub Design: Carmen Giraudy
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Maruno, Jennifer, 1950-
Cherry blossom winter [electronic resource] / Jennifer Maruno.
Electronic monograph.
Issued also in print format.
ISBN 978-1-4597-0212-7
PS8626.A785C54 2012 jC813’.6 C2011-908025-7
We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and Livres Canada Books, and the Government of Ontario through the Ontario Book Publishing Tax Credit and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.
Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.
J. Kirk Howard, President
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In the Same Series
When the Cherry Blossoms Fell
A Cherry Blossom Book
978-1-894917834
$9.95
Nine-year-old Michiko Minagawa bids her father goodbye before her birthday celebration. She doesn’t know the government has ordered all Japanese-born men out of the province. Ten days later, her family joins hundreds of Japanese-Canadians on a train to the interior of British Columbia. Even though her Aunt Sadie jokes about it, they have truly reached the “Land of No.” There are no paved roads, no streetlights, and no streetcars. The house in which they are to live is dirty and drafty. At school Michiko learns the truth of her situation. She must face local prejudice, the worst winter in forty years, and her first Christmas without her father.
Visit us at
Visit us at: Dundurn.com
Definingcanada.ca
@dundurnpress
Facebook.com/dundurnpress