my dad

• Yesterday when we were visiting grandpa's family, I loved hearing them talk about their childhood.  They never do that.  They must have been feeling nostalgic.  It got me thinking about Taylor Lake (the Japanese internment camp near Lone Butte).  I had never been there with grandpa, so I asked him to go with me this morning.
• Grandpa told me more stories in that short trip than he has in my entire lifetime.  I loved hearing about it.  I feel like I know my dad just a little bit better now.  Maybe I know myself a little better as well.  Family history is pretty important.
• When we were in 100 Mile last Christmas, grandpa showed me a book he had recently purchased. He and grandma had gone to a talk about the Internment Camps.  They bought the book.  Imagine their surprise when they opened it, and there was a photo of grandpa (the little one on the left).  Then later on in the book, there was a photo of my grandpa (bottom left).  They had no idea those photos existed.  I couldn't stop staring at the photo of my dad.    I'm having a hard time finding the words to explain it.  He looked like a real little prison boy.  He was in a prison camp.  He was part of history.  He was in a book.  That stuff really happened...it wasn't just a tale from the past.  It blew my mind.  It was the first time I could actually connect my dad to the internment camps...previously it had just been a story that seemed detached and impersonal, like something you'd read about in a text book.
• There is nothing left of the camp at Taylor Lake.  Not even a memorial or sign.  Nothing.  Like it never happened.  There is however, an abandoned house and barn that my dad remembers.  We poked around there a bit, then drove further down Taylor Lake Rd to look around.
• Grandpa's family lived in a tar paper shack.  He said they used to scrounge around to find anything they could to fill in the cracks and try to insulate it.  They used cardboard, scraps of things, moss, and even cow poop.  Keep in mind how cold it gets in the winters up there.  
• My grandpa rigged a little contraption to keep the baby bottles warm.  He hung a tin can of water from the ceiling, then burned a candle under it.  So smart.  It must be where grandpa got his "Jimgineering" genes from.
• My grandpa was sponsored by the Shigehiro family when he came to Canada.  He lived and worked with them on their berry farm.  When the Japanese were moved away from the coastal areas, the government seized all their property, which was never returned to them.  I'm curious to find out where the berry farm was.  The Shigehiros were relocated to Alberta where they worked on sugar beet farms.  They are still there, and still farm sugar beets.  I'm not entirely clear as to why my grandma and grandpa remained in BC.  
• My grandpa worked on the road crews.  The whole family was together in Tashme until my grandma was moved with the kids to Taylor Lake.  I don't know the details, but I think that if I started to research it, I could find the information.  There is a site about the Tashme camp, and it seems as though the records were very well kept.
• I asked grandpa why his family stayed in Lone Butte.  He said it was because they had no where else to go.  They were from Hiroshima, which had been decimated during the war, and there was nothing to return to in Vancouver either.  Everything had been taken from them.  Grandpa said that he never heard his parents speak bitterly about it.  I can't imagine that.  My grandparents had to start all over again from scratch.
• Their first home after the camp was a shack just outside of Lone Butte, just down the hill from that sharp corner near the railway tracks on the Lone Butte/Horse lake road.  They lived there until they bought the place where my Uncle Susumu and Auntie Felis still live.  My dad said it was actually two shacks that his dad joined together to make one house.  Apparently his dad was pretty handy and built everything himself.  There is also a garage that my grandpa built.
• My grandpa had a three speed bike and would bike from Lone Butte to Taylor lake with his Swede Saw and cut down Jack pine.  He would fall the tree, then delimb it, cut it into eight foot lengths and stack them.  A truck from the pulp mill would come and pick up the wood.  My grandpa said he could cut more with his hand saw than the guys with power saws because his saw never broke down.  Lol.  Grandpa said his dad would come home every night and sharpen his saw and get it ready for the next day.  I took a photo of a Jack Pine in the area where he used to cut them.  
• On our way back from Taylor Lake, we stopped at my Uncle Sus's house in Lone Butte.  They had a typical Matsuda visit...standing out by the gate.  I went in and visited with my Auntie Felis.  It was nice to see them.  It's been a long time!
• Grandpa showed me a little hand writing book that Charles Griffin found in the walls of his house. Grandpa had signed his name in it.  So cute!  
• We had some lunch, then started packing up the van.  I suddenly felt inspired to vacuum the van. This is a rare event.  A very rare event.  By the time i finished, it was 4:00.  A tiny bit later than we had hoped to leave, but it was fine.  
• George and Lila, you love grandma's Roomba.  You think it's the best thing you've ever seen. 
• Katie, i enjoy your silly sense of humor.  I adore these photos of you and grandpa saying goodbye.
• I love the photos I take of grandma and grandpa waving goodbye in the driveway.  They've always done that, and it's so cute.
• George, you slept all the way from 100 Mile to Hope.  Epic nap, little dude.
• I couldn't stop thinking about grandpa all day.  He has journeyed far in his life.  I'm so proud of him.  He came from nothing and worked really hard and supported a big family and provided nice places for us to live, and plenty of food, and piano lessons, and summer vacations and all that good stuff.  He taught me to work hard and be responsible and do my best no matter what.  That has served me very well.  It makes me want to do better.   I hope that you'll want to do even better than daddy and I have.