Past Wrongs, Future Choices

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Past Wrongs, Future Choices

We are committed to telling Nikkei history together. Present challenges of migration, racism, and security are global in scale.

So too is the public knowledge necessary for understanding how we came to this point and how we can forge new paths forward.

08/26/2026

Artist Talk: Photo Exhibition “remains Nagasaki”
By Ken Mizokoshi Mizokoshi Ken

📍 theDock - Centre for Social Impact, Victoria, BC
🗓Thursday, Sept 10th, 2026
🕕 6:00 - 7:30pm

"Ken Mizokoshi’s photo project remains Nagasaki, involved taking photos of personal belongings such as clock, school uniform and cap that were found around the epicenter of the atomic bomb in Nagasaki. These belongings were discovered on the ground after the bombing. They are part of the collection of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum, the Urakami Catholic church in Nagasaki, and the medical department of Nagasaki University. He wants people in the world to know about the atomic bomb survivors and the dangers of nuclear weapons. He believes that these personal belongings can deeply convey the tragedy that their owners experienced. He also wants viewers to feel the dreadfulness more personally, at a closer distance, rather than just simply reading statistics about the people who were killed by the bomb. His goal was to encourage viewers to imagine each person’s life through their possessions. This project’s photo exhibition has been held in Nagasaki, Tokyo, New York, and other locations, attracting widespread interest."

Reserve a spot for Sept 10th and read more about Ken Mizokoshi here: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artist-talk-photo-exhibition-remains-nagasaki-tickets-1994254026477

📍Venue１: Greater Victoria Public Library James Bay Branch (385 Menzies Street, Victoria,
BC V8V 0C2) From August 24 th to November 23 rd
📍Venue 2: The Dock (722 Cormorant Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 1P8) From September 7th to November 23rd

08/25/2026

Only a few days away, don't miss it! 🌸

08/12/2026

Upcoming Events!
Electric Neon Clock｜Art Gallery of Mississauga | Free Admission
August 8 – October 25, 2026

This summer, the Art Gallery of Mississauga presents A.S.M. Kobayashi: Electric Neon Clock, a multimedia exhibition that examines the history of Japanese Canadian incarceration during the Second World War through archival records, family history, and live performance. The exhibition runs August 8 to October 25, 2026, with an opening reception on August 15.

Electric Neon Clock asks how artists can reclaim official records that were originally created to surveil and dismantle communities. Guided by her family's custodial file, Kobayashi transforms these archives into a multimedia installation and a series of live performances using video, sound, family interviews, photographs, and the format of a live auction. Audiences are invited to engage directly with the archival material, reconsider its meaning, and participate in restoring the human stories behind the records.

Copy and paste these link into a browser to view...
🎥 Electric Neon Clock Trailer: https://vimeo.com/937426689

🎨More about the Mississauga Art Exhibit ():
https://www.artgalleryofmississauga.com/events/a-s-m-kobayashi-electric-neon-clock/

🎟Book Performance Tickets
Ticketed performances (October):
https://akimbo.ca/listings/a-s-m-kobayashi-electric-neon-clock/

Interview with the Nikkei National Museum (Nikkei National Museum)
https://centre.nikkeiplace.org/2026/02/25/alison-kobayashi/

04/24/2026

❗️Major congratulations to PWFC's very own Eric Adams- now Justice Eric Adams- in being appointed to the Court of King's Bench of Alberta⚖️

"Eric M. Adams, Professor of Law at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, is appointed a Justice of the Court of King's Bench of Alberta in Edmonton. Justice Adams replaces Justice B.L. Bokenfohr (Edmonton), who resigned effective January 30, 2026." - Department of Justice Canada

For more information about Justice Eric M. Adams and the position please go to:
https://www.canada.ca/en/department-justice/news/2026/04/minister-of-justice-and-attorney-general-of-canada-announces-a-judicial-appointment-in-the-province-of-alberta.html

03/19/2026

The Breakwater: Book talk Leslie Shimotakahara
Thursday, April 23, 2026 3:00 Pacific Daylight time

❗️Join us for a conversation with Leslie Shimotakahara on her new novel, The Breakwater.

One morning in Toronto, Cathy Matsumoto’s father, Yasuo, calls to announce he intends to visit a dying cousin in British Columbia. Cathy’s never heard of this mysterious relative before, but she begrudgingly agrees to plan a family trip with her father and daughter, Tessa, to Victoria, the hometown Yas was forcibly evicted from when Japanese Canadians were interned during World War Two.
It's only in BC that Cathy learns this “cousin” is actually Yas’s younger brother, Stum, who’s been languishing in psychiatric care, abandoned, ever since Yas committed him to Essondale Asylum before the war.

Yas tries to fend off probing questions from his daughter and granddaughter, but revisiting old haunts brings back memories of the brothers’ boyhood rivalry and coming-of-age near Victoria’s Chinatown, when Yas’s resolve to hold their fractured family together clashed against Stum’s troublesome turn toward a life of gambling, crime, and consorting with prostitutes.

In this heartbreaking family story, two brothers, both old men not far from death, must at last confront long-buried family secrets — and their lingering effects on subsequent generations.

💻 Go register for the zoom link go to: https://uvic.zoom.us/meeting/register/ktX3VkNNRE2xoXMAInv-ww #/registration

🖇 For more information go to: www.pastwrongsfuturechoices.com

02/28/2026

Voices Beyond the Grave: Japanese Internment in the French Pacific
📖 Book talk Benjamin Hiramatsu Ireland
📍Friday, March 6, 2026 4:00 pm Pacific Standard time

Join us for a “sneak peek” at a pathbreaking, forthcoming book, available for pre-order now.
Release date in March 2026.

Voices Beyond the Grave uncovers a forgotten history of Japanese internment in the French Pacific during World War II. Situated at the nexus of Asian American Studies and Francophone Studies, the book draws on newly discovered archives, censored letters, and oral histories to show how empire, war, and racialized surveillance tore apart Japanese and Melanesian families.

This pathbreaking work demonstrates how Japanese Pacific internees were financially and administratively embedded in a global carceral network whose effects endured long after incarceration ended.

Blending history, memory studies, and decolonial critique, the book reveals how archives can silence, haunt, and heal. At once rigorous and deeply human, Voices Beyond the Grave reshapes how we understand internment, diaspora, and the afterlives of empire.

🖇Register for the Zoom link :
https://uvic.zoom.us/meeting/register/O7aXQG99Thi1pHyiYZaWyw #/registration

📚Pre-Order the book at:
https://uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/voices-beyond-the-grave-japanese-internment-in-the-french-pacific/

02/17/2026

On February 13, 2026, in Taylor v. Newfoundland and Labrador, the Supreme Court of Canada had to consider the scope and meaning of the Mobility Rights guaranteed under section 6 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Supreme Court canvassed the historical foundations of freedom of movement in Canadian law and acknowledged instances in which Canada has fallen short in safeguarding this fundamental liberty. Citing Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross’ recent publication of Challenging Exile: Japanese Canadians and the Wartime Constitution, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized the “internment and deportation” of Japanese Canadians as an example of Canada’s historic violation of mobility rights.

📖 "In September 1945, Canada proposed exiling Japanese Canadians to Japan, a country devastated by war. Thousands who had experienced internment and dispossession were now at risk of banishment.
In Challenging Exile, Eric M. Adams and Jordan Stanger-Ross detail the circumstances and personalities behind the exile. They follow the lives of families facing government orders that uprooted them from their homes, stripped them of their livelihoods and possessions, and proposed to exile them from Canada. And they analyze the court case in which lawyers and judges grappled with the meaning of citizenship, race, and rights in times of war and its aftermath.
Unfolding in a context of global conflict, sharpened borders, and racist suspicion, the story told in Challenging Exile has enduring relevance for our own troubled times.” – Challenging Exile back-cover synopsis

📚To buy a copy of Challenging Exile, check out your local bookstores or go to https://www.ubcpress.ca/challenging-exile

🖇 For more information on the case of Taylor v. Newfoundland and Labrador, please go to:
https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/21375/index.do

02/08/2026

❗️Don't miss this amazing opportunity to hear Greg Robinson speak at his in-person event this Wednesday, Feb 11th at the University of Victoria.

***r -bending

01/23/2026

A beautiful lesson on Sumi-e 墨絵 (Japanese brush painting) today at the University of Victora by PWFC's very own Michael Kenji Abe (Mike)!

🖌 Michael began painting in 1988 while living in Japan. His annual Nenga jo 年賀状 (Japanese New Year’s cards) have depicted the animals of the zodiac since 1999.

2026 is the Year of the Horse.🐎

-e #2026

12/06/2025

❗️Do not miss this opportunity❗️

Discover Japanese Canadian history in an immersive, community-centered setting.
Through engagement with communities, oral histories, historic sites, museums, and seminars, this two-week field school will deepen your understanding of Japanese Canadian experiences during Canada's internment era while helping you build the knowledge and networks needed to help forge a more just future.

Earn University credits in the most beneficial way!

📧Spots are very limited, please email Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross at [email protected] if you are interested in attending or have questions about the Field School!

Address

Centre For Asia Pacific Initiatives University Of Victoria Murray And Anne Fraser Building, Room A168 P. O. Box 1700 STN CSC V8W2Y 2
Victoria, BC

Telephone

+12507217023

Website

http://www.pastwrongsfuturechoices.com/

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