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Abstract
The educational work of women religious with Japanese evacuees in British Columbia during the Second World War and Canadian Catholic women’s missions in Japan have been overlooked by most historians. The Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin of Nicolet, Quebec published chronicles of their mission in Japan (begun in 1934) and in Slocan, B.C. (1943–1946) in their community journal, Assumpta. The community included francophone Canadians and Americans and some Japanese. During the War, the missionaries in Japan were either interned or repatriated. One of the latter Sisters, an American, taught at Slocan and then returned to Japan after the War. This essay draws on Assumpta chronicles to narrate the experience of the Sisters teaching the Japanese in Canada during the Second World War, and suggests that the framework of captivity narratives might be used to further discuss the complexities of the Sisters’ educational mission and history.
Acknowledgements
The author thanks Muriel Lemoine, SASV, Superior General of the Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin for permission to include quotations from the Sisters’ archival material.The author acknowledges the assistance of the late Sister Anne-Marie Mireault, SASV, the Provincial Archives of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, and the Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nelson, B.C.
Notes
1
2Tom O’Donoghue and Anthony Potts, “Researching the Lives of Catholic Teachers who were Members of Religious Orders: Historiographical Considerations,” History of Education 33, no. 4 (July 2004): 469–71.
3Richard Leclerc, “Representations of Japan in the Bulletin de l’Union missionnaire du Clergé: A Chapter in the History of Québec Catholic Missions in Asia, 1925–1973,” CCHA Historical Studies 72 (2006): 20 and 22.
4Ann Harrington, “Catholic Women Religious and Catholicism in Japan: 1872–1940,” in Xavier’s Legacies: Catholicism in Modern Japanese Culture, ed. Kevin M. Doak (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011), 32 and 44.
5Catherine Foisy, “Preparing the Quebec Church for Vatican II: Missionary Lessons from Asia, Africa and Latin America, 1945–1962,” CCHA Historical Studies 78 (2012): 7.
6Jacqueline Gresko, “O’Melia San and the Catholic Japanese Mission, Vancouver, B.C.,” CCHA Historical Studies 75 (2009): 83–9. On the Greenwood mission see Patricia E. Roy, The Triumph of Citizenship: The Japanese and Chinese in Canada, 1941–67 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007), 102–3 and 108–9; T. Takata, The Nikkei Legacy: The Story of Japanese Canadians from Settlement to Today (Toronto: NC Press, 1983), 124, 135.
7Jacqueline Gresko, “Roman Catholic Sisters and Japanese Evacuees in British Columbia: A Research Note,” Journal of the Canadian Church Historical Society 38 (1996): 123–6.
8Elizabeth Smyth, “’Writing Teaches Us Our Mysteries’: Women Religious Recording and Writing History,” in Creating Historical Memory: English-Canadian Women and the Work of History, ed. B. Boutilier and A. Prentice (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1997), 102–4, 125. See also Elizabeth Smyth, Introduction, in Changing Habits: Women’s Religious Orders in Canada (Ottawa: Novalis, 2007), 9 and 18. K.J.P. Lowe, Nuns’ Chronicles and Convent Culture in Renaissance and Counter-Reformation Italy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) emphasises the value of chronicles and the agency of women religious.
9Smyth, Changing Habits; Micheline Dumont and Marie-Paule Malouin, “Evolution et role des congrégations religieuses enseignantes féminines au Québec 1840–1860,” SCHEC Sessions d’étude 50 (1983): 201–30. See also Thérèse Hamel, Un siècle de formation des maîtres au Québec 1836–1939 (Ville La Salle, Québec: Editions Hurtubise MMH Ltée, 1995).
10Rosa Bruno-Jofré, The Missionary Oblate Sisters: Vision and Mission (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005). Claude Langlois, Le Catholicisme au féminin. Les congrégations françaises à supérieure générale au XIXe siècle (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1984) discusses the significance of overseas missions to the growth of French congregations.
11Alice Mignault, SASV. Cent ans d’Espérance, Les Soeurs de l’Assomption de la Sainte Vierge dans l’Ouest canadien 1891-1991 (Nicolet: Editions S.A.S.V., 1991), trans. Roger Motut and published as A Century of Hope. The Sisters of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin in Western Canada 1891-1991 (Edmonton, Alberta, 1992).
12Mariette Pellerin, “Edwige Buisson [Mother St. Joseph],” Dictionary of Canadian Biography Vol. XIII (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994), 131–2; Mignault, Century of Hope, 19–20 on Oblates and Indian schools; 59–60 and 77 on Ku Klux Klan; 25, 28–32 and 105 on teacher education. Raymond Huel, “The Anderson Amendments: A Half-Century Later,” CCHA Study Sessions 47 (1980): 5–21, examines anti-French and anti-Catholic prejudice in Saskatchewan.
13 Assumpta no. 1 (May 1934) and no. 5 (September 1934) as “Voix du Japon,” and then no. 7 (December 1934) “Courrier du Japon,” with the account of the Sisters’ welcome by the Dominican Fathers.
14PAA, SASV 93.281/46, Val Marie, Saskatchewan, Chroniques du Couvent, 1939–1985, p. 42 describes “Notre journée missionnaire,” February 12 1944. A week later, two of the Sisters went to Biggar to meet repatriated missionary Sister Saint Jean-Chrysostome, who was en route to Slocan, B.C.
15Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, Together with the Faithfulness of His Promises Displayed. Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Related Documents, ed. Neal Salisbury (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997).
16Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, “Introduction,” 55.
17Philippe Sylvain, “Maria Monk,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. VII (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988), 624–6.
18Sarah Carter, Capturing Women: The Manipulation of Cultural Imagery in Canada’s Prairie West (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s Press, 1997).
19Caroline M. Woidat, “Captivity, Freedom, and the New World Convent: The Spiritual Autobiography of Marie de l’Incarnation Guyart,” Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers 25, no. 1 (2008): 2–4.
20Trudelle Thomas, “’Heed not the Fall: Elegy as Myth among the Ursuline Nuns,” Journal of American Culture 11, no. 2 (Summer 1988): 47, 49, 50, 51, 54.
21Midge Ayukawa, Hiroshima Immigrants in Canada 1891-1941 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008), 98–111.
22Patricia E. Roy, “‘Due to their keenness regarding education, they will get the utmost out of the whole plan.’ The Education of Japanese Children in the British Columbia Interior Housing Settlements During World War Two,” Historical Studies in Education 4, no. 2 (1992): 211–31 and note 7, p. 227 on the federal agencies. Greg Robinson, A Tragedy of Democracy: Japanese Confinement in North America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2009), vi–vii, clarifies use of the terms “removal” and “camps,” rather than “internment camps,” as the relocation centres were not prisoner-of-war camps.
23Takata, Nikkei Legacy, 124. See also Patricia E. Roy et al., Mutual Hostages. Canadians and Japanese During the Second World War (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990), 122.
24Roy, “‘Due to their keenness,’” 211–31, and Frank Moritsugu and the Ghost-Town Teachers Historical Society, Teaching in Canadian Exile: A History of the Schools for Japanese Canadian Children in British Columbia Detention Camps During the Second World War (Toronto: Ghost-Town Teachers Historical Society, 2001). The Seventy-Third Annual Report of the Public Schools of the Province of British Columbia 1943-1944 (Victoria, B.C., 1945), B 13 and B 142–3, indicates there was a public “Junior High School” (Grades Seven to Ten) in Slocan. One teacher taught 24 students in 1942–1943 and 13 the following year. Assumpta (1943), 89. The Sisters mentioned this school.
25This booklet, written by Grégoire Leger, OFM, was published in Quebec in 1944 by Les Missions Franciscaines. On education, see Roy, “‘Due to their keenness.’” Articles in The Prospector, the diocesan paper from Nelson, and in the Japanese New Canadian published at Kaslo also discuss the development of Catholic education. See Roy, Triumph of Citizenship, 109 and 123, on the support of Archbishop W. M. Duke of Vancouver for Catholic efforts for Japanese evacuees.
26 Le Canada Ecclésiastique (1943), 620.
27Sister K. Meagher, SC, et al., compilers, 1936–1986. 50 Years Pilgrimage of Faith. The Story of the Diocese of Nelson, 1936–1986.
28See S. Takashima, A Child in Prison Camp (Montreal: Tundra Books, 1971), and Kim (Oikawa) Kobrle, chronicler, High School Education in a Wartime Camp. The Story of Notre Dame High School 1943–1947 (Notre Dame High School Alumni, 2005).
29 Assumpta (1944): 5–14, account of the 1942–1943 lives of the Sisters in Japan by Sister Giselle-Marie, one of four Sisters repatriated to Canada in autumn 1943. Two other Sisters remained in Japan until September 1945. Assumpta (1946) 267–90 contains the journal of the 1943 repatriation voyage.
30 Le Canada Ecclésiastique (1943), 852.
31 Assumpta (1943–1947) indicates the following served at Slocan City: Sisters Marie-du-Crucifix, the Superior, 1943–1946; Sister Joseph Ernest 1943–1944; Sister Rose Helene 1943; Sister Saint Eugène-de-Milan 1943–1944; Sister Saint Jean-Chrysostome 1944–1946 (she returned to Japan in late 1946); Sister Saint-Nérée 1943 (she went to Japan in 1949). Sisters Saint Zénon, Claire Marie and Lucius came in 1944–1945, along with Sisters Sainte Claire-de-Rimini and Françoise-de-Saint-Joseph. Teachers from Alberta included the Superior and Sisters Saint Eugène-de-Milan and Claire-de-Rimini. Mignault, Century of Hope, 105, praises Sister Marie-du-Crucifix as Superior at St. Paul Alberta 1931 to 1937.
32 Assumpta (1943): 83.
33 Assumpta (1943): 82–91. Le Canada Ecclésiastique (1944), 668, listed four Franciscan Fathers at Slocan: Alexandre Duphily, Grégoire Leger, Clément Lepine and Léonce Panneton.
34 Assumpta (1943): 124, on costs and donations, and 117 on Kirkland Lake donations.
35 La Survivance, Edmonton, Alberta, December 15 1943, has a thank you from the Sisters for $115 raised at Edmonton card parties for the Slocan mission.
36 Assumpta (1943): 81; Assumpta (1944): 41; Assumpta (1945): 64.
37This description draws on articles in Assumpta, files in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nelson Archives including the “Register of Pupils, Slocan Catholic High School, Slocan City, B.C.,” 1943 to 1946 and a booklet produced in 1945, Les Soeurs de l'Assomption dans les Camps de Concentration Japonais de la Colombie Britannique. There is also a copy of this booklet in PAA, SASV, 73.80.
38Mignault, Century of Hope, 92–3.
39 Assumpta (1944): 211, October 4 1944, on the arrival of Miss Okawa. She had completed high school in Vancouver and two years of commercial studies with the Atonement Sisters.
40 Assumpta (1944): 133.
41 Assumpta (1944):170 and 91; Assumpta (1945): 66; Cathy James, “‘An Opportunity for Service’: Women of the Anglican Mission to the Japanese in Canada, 1903–1957” (master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, 1991), 108–9, on the envy and admiration the Anglican women teachers felt toward the Sisters.
42 Assumpta (1944): 81, “au petit Japon,” and 131.
43 Assumpta (1946): 86.
44 Les Soeurs de l’Assomption dans les Camps de Concentration Japonais de la Colombie Britannique (1945). Assumpta (1944): 222 mentioned students drafting compositions for this report on 16 December 1944.
45Muriel Kitagawa, This is My Own: Letters to Wes and Other Writings on Japanese Canadians, 1941–1948, ed. Roy Miki (Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1985) describes pre-war school days in New Westminster, B.C. Additional information can be found in articles in Children, Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia, ed. Jean Barman, Neil Sutherland, and J. Donald Wilson (Calgary: Detselig, 1995).
46 Assumpta (1945): 201, September 8 1945, reported that Bishop Johnson helped to find lodging for a student who went to Nelson to write a supplemental examination.
47Roman Catholic Diocese of Nelson B.C., correspondence from the Apostolic Delegate, Mgr. Anoniutti to Bishop Martin Johnson, March 30 1944; December 11 1944; April 20 1945; April 21 1945; December 9 1945.
48Grégoire, En Mission, passim. The Franciscans gave their Slocan church and rectory over to the high school. The car, a second-hand Ford, and its travels over mountain roads became local legends.
49 Assumpta (1944): 128, 130–31. On examinations see Assumpta (1945): 183, with reference to June 15 1945.
50Stephanie Bangarth, Voices Raised in Protest. Defending North American Citizens of Japanese Ancestry, 1942–1949 (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008), 226–227, note 48, on concern about the January 1944 Les Missions Franciscaines.
51 Assumpta (1943): 90, account of April18–25.
52Y. Shimizu, The Exiles: An Archival History of the World War II Japanese Road Camps. British Columbia and Ontario (Wallaceburg, ON: Shimizu Consulting and Publishing, 1993).
53 Assumpta (1944): 211, October 12 1944, reference to the second visit of the inspector. Assumpta (1944): 128, on the one formal call of George Collins.
54 Assumpta (1945): 28. On February 23 1945 the Sisters said they had heard Radio Canada broadcasts in French. Les Soeurs de l'Assomption dans les Camps de Concentration Japonais, 35, gives the student comment on “[l]istening to the radio” at school.
55Tatsuo Kage, Uprooted Again: Japanese Canadians Move to Japan after World War II, trans. Kathleen Chisato Merken (Victoria: Ti-Jean Press, 2012). At Lemon Creek near Slocan, there were a few who had radios and were able to receive news from Japan.
56 Les Soeurs de l’Assomption dans les Camps de Concentration Japonais contains student letters. See comments on clothing in Assumpta (1944): 32.
57 Assumpta (1946): 492, on dolls; (1944): 129, on bingo; (1945): 254, on a representative of “l’Association des Parents” meeting with the Sisters. Roy, “‘Due to their keenness,’” 223, says elementary school systems of prefects and rules came from Vancouver public school examples.
58 Assumpta (1946): 35–40, referring to December 1945 and January 1946.
59 Assumpta (1945): 23, Sister Sainte Claire-de-Rimini reporting on January 7–21 1945.
60 Assumpta (1944): 81 and 131–3, reference to “petit Japon.” (In the United States a French Canadian community was sometimes called “Little Canada.”) Assumpta (1943): 83 and (1945): 65 for Acadian references.
61 Assumpta (1944): 209–10 on farewells. Assumpta (1945): 67 and 74 on repatriation upsetting pupils and reference to notice in the New Canadian. Assumpta (1945): 125–27 on Miss Okawa’s concerns. For background on the government policies and programmes see Roy, The Triumph of Citizenship.
62 Assumpta (1943): 161. The Sisters offered help to a girl who was resettling in Montreal. New Canadian (March 14 1945): 8. The Missionary Sisters of Christ the King, who had worked in the Slocan Valley, had opened St. Raphael’s Hostel in Montreal to assist Japanese young people moving east.
63 Assumpta (1945): 226 and 248.
64The inventory is in PAA 73.80 SASV 40/1. Assumpta (1946): 113, “Journal de la Maison mère,” spoke of plans for Slocan, as did (1946): 140–41, chronicle on Slocan.
65 Assumpta (1946): 140–1. There had been only five conversions in the past year.
66 Assumpta (1947): 34, January 30, 1947, and Assumpta (1949): 156–7, letters from Sister Saint Jean-Chrysostome, regarding letters and visits with former Slocan students.
67Mignault, Century of Hope, 181.
68Mignault, Century of Hope. New Canadian (August 29 1996) and Edmonton La Survivance (September 7 1955). Archives of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Nelson, letter from archivist Peg Barone to Sister Carmel Joly (Sister Saint-Zénon), May 2 1991, along with an undated reply on her memories of Slocan.
69Mignault, Century of Hope, 103.