"In Canada"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyday, she sat and watched Mankichi Muramoto pass by.  

He with the handsome, solemn face.

She with the patient pigtails.  

 

He nineteen. 

She six years old.

 

"This is the man I am going to marry."

 

Her parents explained:

 

"No. Haruyo. You cannot marry this man.

First, you cannot decide for yourself.

Second, he is leaving Yamaguchi-ken.

Third, be a good girl and go play with your toys."

 

In 1904, Mankichi Muramoto packed up his few belongings

Said goodbye to his loved ones.

Left Japan

Set off for a distant country

 

Canada  

 

For seven years, Haruyo waited, and now she was of marrying age.

Thirteen. 

 

Everyday she thought of Mankichi and

Waited for her dreams to come true.

 

"This is the man I am going to marry,

in Canada."

 

Her teenaged friends gathered 'round her and said:

 

"No. Haruyo. You must put your dreams aside.

You cannot marry this man.

First, Canada is far, far away

You cannot go there.

Second, your parents will arrange for you a marriage, here.

They have pictures of many fine men.

Third, the man must choose you."

 

Haruyo had already chosen.

Everyday she watched for the mail.

 

One day, she went to get the letters and found a package

The printing said, "do not bend."

She ran off to the barn and tore it open

Screamed and laughed and scared the chickens.

It was a photograph of Mankichi's solemn and handsome face.

 

She knew what this meant.  

He was sending for her.

 

"This is the man I am going to marry,

in Canada."

 

And when her parents started to say:

"No, Haruyo..."

 

Haruyo simply smiled and

Waited for them to accept her decision.

 

"But, where is Canada?" they asked.

"What kind of a country is this?

When will we see you again?"

 

"I do not know," said Haruyo,

"but I trust Mankichi Muramoto

He says it is a nice place to have a strawberry farm."

 

Haruyo packed up her few belongings

Said goodbye to her loved ones.

Left Japan

Took the long journey

 

to Canada

 

There, she found her true love, Mankichi.

In a little house

on spacious land

in a new town

on the west coast of British Columbia. 

 

in Canada.

 

Haruyo wrote her family,

"It rains a lot here

But, I am very happy anyway."

 

On their wedding day,

Mankichi and Haruyo

Traveled to Victoria

A Canadian island city

 

When Mankichi saw his bride

he thought she looked beautiful and fancy and said:

 

"Let me take your maiden name, since you have no brothers."

 

From then on, they were known as Mr. and Mrs. Iyemoto.

 

The couple worked hard

Cultivating the strawberries in Pitt Meadows.

Twenty acres.

In 1914, rumours of a war

shook the world

But their life was peaceful

 

in Canada

 

The fields were wide open.

They walked down the hill to fish

in the abundant Fraser river.

 

Not all was joyful for

Haruyo and Mankichi

Two babies were lost

A girl and a boy

 

In 1920

Grace

a daughter

was born

and many daughters and sons, after.

 

A second war shook the world.  

It shook Japan.

It shook Canada.  

It shook their friends.  

 

Now their neighbours looked sideways at the "foreign" family.

Orders came from the Canadian government

These Japanese intruders must go back to Japan.

 

Leave Canada

 

The Iyemotos were frightening to the community.

The Iyemotos were frightened.  

 

Mankichi and Haruyo's eldest daughters were taken away from them

Sent to a place where they could not find them

A beet farm in the province of Manitoba.

 

Leave Canada

 

Haruyo cried as she packed up her few belongings.

She and Mankichi said goodbye to their strawberry farm

Left Canada

Took the long journey.

 

Japan was the enemy and Japan was family.

Canada was family and Canada was the enemy.

 

Their family was torn

Their country was torn

Their hearts were torn

 

In Iwakuni, Japan

the people were starving.

 

The Iyemotos began their most difficult days

Their youngest children ached for food.  

The Iyemotos ached for their lost, older girls

 

In Japan

Each sunrise was harder than the last. 

 

One day

On exactly the same hard day

Mankichi and Haruyo Iyemoto

passed away of malnutrition. 

 

Their hearts 

broken

gave out together. 

 

Their daughter survived to tell her parent's story

Just as her mother had told her over and over again;

 

A tale of true love.

How Haruyo had fallen in love with Mankichi.

 

How love lasts forever and how dreams come true.

 

In Canada

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to my friend, Sue Grant, who sent me most of the details of this story, from the book: "Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows, a History in Photographs," by Donald E. Waite.  Mankichi was the first Japanese settler in Pitt Meadows.  He and Haruyo made a life there, long before the farms became suburbs.  The book refers to Haruyo as "Harnyo," but I went with the former spelling as that is the name used in the obituary of the Iyemoto's daughter, Grace (her surname being spelled, "Eyemoto").  After Mankichi and Haruyo passed away in Japan, their children were reunited

 

in Canada.