50

Mary Ohara posing on the NYK ship Hikawa Maru
1953
Pacific Ocean

51

Mary Ohara

"My father died during the war and my mother didn't know what to do. Our house on Saltspring Island was taken away from us, our boat was taken away, and she was told to either go to Japan or go back east. She had no way of earning income so she chose Japan because her mother was there. It was a big mistake because there was no food, not even to feed their own people."

Mary and her sister Mariko helped the family survive in Japan, especially with the dressmaking skills Mariko had learned with Mrs. S. Tanegawa in the camp at Lemon Creek. "People would bring old kimonos or old clothes and my sister would take them apart and make dresses for them. Japan didn't have any new fabric for several years. I would help my sister design the dresses and our customers would give us food in exchange."

Eight years later in 1953, Mary had saved enough to pay the ocean passage fare to realize her dream of returning to Canada.

From a conversation with Mary Ohara at the Japanese Canadian National Museum, 2003.