User:NAJCSuzanne/sandbox/Roger Sachio Obata

Roger Sachio Obata

Roger Sachio Obata (1915-2002) was a human rights activist instrumental in achieving redress for Japanese Canadians. He was the founding president of the National Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (NJCCA), which later became the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC).

Early Life

Obata was born on April 20, 1916 in Prince George, British Columbia and raised in Prince Rupert. His parents Clarence Sataro Obata and Mary Tami Ishiwata were Japanese immigrants.

British Columbia has been termed a "province like no other" due to more than 170 pieces of discriminatory legislation targeting Asians and Indigenous peoples from 1885-1948. Fearing the dominance of new Asian immigrants in the economy, the white majority led by their politicians, sought to impose tight restrictions to eliminate competition. Resentment and fear of the success of Japanese Canadians in the fishing, farming and forestry industries led to the the formation of the Vancouver Asiatic Exclusion League (AEL), modelled after its namesake that began in California. In 1907 Anti-Asian riots occurred following a parade organized by the AEL to Vancouver City Hall where thousands of people gathered. The crowd dissolved into an angry mob that moved on to target and destroy property in Vancouver's Chinatown and Powell Street neighbourhood, the bustling centre of the Japanese Canadian community. Over two days of looting and violence resulted in thousands of dollars in damages.

Obata’s early experiences and keen understanding of this racism and hatred propelled him to take an active stance against the Canadian government’s discriminatory laws towards Japanese Canadians. He stated, “the only way to exercise [Japanese Canadians’] rights and make changes to improve [the community’s] future was by being allowed to vote.”

While a student at University of British Columbia (UBC), he acted as president of the Japanese Canadian Students Club and was actively involved with the Japanese Canadian Citizens League, which sought the franchise for Japanese Canadians. He was asked to be part of a 1936 delegation to Ottawa to lobby the government for the vote, but it would have meant missing his engineering finals. Because of this conflict, he was unable to travel and replaced by Min Kobayashi.

After graduating with an engineering degree, Obata was forced to move outside the province. Like other Japanese Canadian university students and graduates, such as Wes Fujiwara, who wanted to continue their studies or practise in their chosen professions, he faced discriminatory restrictions and legislation that limited B.C. education and employment opportunities in B.C. Restrictions that now fit within recognized principles on Internal Displacement as defined by the United Nations in 1990. While not considered forced displacement at that time, Obata wanted to escape from these human rights violations and moved to Toronto in 1938, working briefly as a houseboy before finding work in his field.

In March of 1942, the evacuation of persons of Japanese ancestry from Prince Rupert, B.C. had begun. Obata’s mother lost her business and personal property and was sent to Hastings Park in Vancouver. She faced these hardships on her own as two of her three sons had died tragically as had her husband.

My mother was a very strong person and not one to cry easily, but she said that when she had to stand in line with a tin plate for a piece of baloney and a cold potato for supper, tears welled up in her eyes for the first time since she lost my dad and my brother Albert. When I learned of these conditions in Hastings Park, here in Toronto, I was determined to get my mother out of there as soon as possible. - Roger Obata in his unpublished memoir

Japanese Canadian Citizens for Democracy

In 1942, Obata recognized the need for an organization to assist displaced nisei in finding housing and jobs and was part of the founding group of the Japanese Canadian Citizens for Democracy (JCCD).

Some of the Nisei leaders who arrived in Toronto in the 1942-43 period were people like George Tamaki, Kunio Shimizu, Eiji Yatabe, George Tanaka, Kinzie Tanaka, and Kunio Hidaka. It was almost like a reunion of the Students' Club from U.B.C. - Roger Obata in his unpublished memoir

The JCCD goals were to assist with relocations, fight for the right to enlist, and oppose the post-war exile of Japanese Canadians to Japan. Obata and the entire nisei executive of the JCCD went on to serve in the Canadian Armed Forces. In fall of 1946 the JCCD began to lay the groundwork for the Bird Commission by distributing a survey in Toronto to “determine the number of claimants and get concrete figures regarding total losses.”

Founding of the National Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association

On Labour Day weekend in 1947, a conference was called in Toronto with representatives from each province from B.C. to Quebec. Since this was the first national conference of Japanese Canadians from all the major provinces of Canada, we decided to seek the assistance of Mike Masaoka of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Mike kindly agreed to attend and assist us in our task of forming a national organization.

Roger Obata became the first president of the newly formed National Japanese Canadian Citizens’ Association (NJCCA). Its main goal was to address property claims. The NJCCA and the JCCD worked with the Cooperative Committee on Japanese Canadians (CCJC). Led by Reverend James Finlay, the CCJC was an ad hoc committee, which included non-Japanese Christian church workers in their campaign of opposing deportations and expatriations to Japan. Their legal counsel Andrew Brewin was a supporter of the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation party and a member of Parliament.

The CCJC represented Toronto claimants at the Bird Commission, but Obata and Kunio Hidaka were bitterly disappointed by the results and lost faith in their lawyer Andrew Brewin. Both resigned in protest from the committee. In the words of writer Ken Adachi, “An old Issei in 1950 could stare at his cheque for $140.50 awarded as his recovery on a house in Vancouver for which he paid $3,000 in 1930 and which was sold by the Custodian for $1,200 in 1943. He could stare and stare and wonder what remote connection it had with the destruction of his life’s work and security . . . Losses had to be measured in terms of entire lives.”

The fight for redress continued for more than 40 years. In 1977 Obata served as national president of the Japanese Canadian Centennial Society. The group was a touchstone for raising awareness and interest in once again seeking compensation for Japanese Canadians. For Obata the 1977 centennial was “a year to confirm [Japanese Canadians'] pride in our heritage, to celebrate our 100 year history and contribution to Canada, and to re-establish our bond as a community.”

In 1978 Momiji Health Care Society (Momiji) was established to serve the issei, specifically those who settled in the Toronto area after the Second World War. It was the realization of a vision shared by its founders Mary and Roger Obata, Kazuo Oiye, Roy Shinobu, Fred Sasaki and Dr. Fred Sunahara.

In 1980 the NJCCA was renamed the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC). On November 26, NAJC representatives Gordon Kadota, Art Shimizu and Roger Obata made presentations to the Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons on the Constitution of Canada arguing for the entrenchment of the Charter of Rights into the Constitution, to supersede all powers.

Roger Obata was vice-president of the NAJC and member of the strategy committee when redress for Japanese Canadians was achieved. In Obata’s own words, redress was a “historic victory in the struggle for justice and human rights for all Canadians and not just for Japanese Canadians.”

For his lifelong struggle to enrich the lives of Japanese Canadians spanning more than a half century, and for his exceptional contributions to the historic redress settlement in 1988, Roger Obata was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1990.

External links

Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians, https://www.torontonajc.ca

Japanese Canadian Redress: The Toronto Story, NAJC website, http://torontonajc.ca/torontostory/

National Archives of Canada, "Roger Obata fonds, R9332, Finding Aid No. 2277," 2002, http://data2.archives.ca/pdf/pdf001/p000000792.pdf