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From Japan to Canada
current
Japan

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Shigehisa 'Sam' Hikichi was born in Senouye, Fukushima-ken, Japan in 1890. In 1907, at the age of seventeen, he immigrated to Canada with his uncle Kichisaburo Hikichi, settling first in Vancouver. Shigehisa worked at the Hotel Vancouver for several years. This was at the time of Vancouver's Asiatic Exclusion League riots, where thousands of people marched through Chinatown and then through the Japanese community on September 7th, shouting racist slogans and vandalizing property. Shigehisa was at work that day and hid in a broom closet until the mob passed.

In 1911, Shigehisa moved to the Coldstream Ranch, working in the orchards and eventually establishing a chicken farm. He moved to the Rainbow Ranche at Okanagan Centre in 1918.

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Shigehisa Hikichi's chicken farm at the Coldstream Ranch
1918
Coldstream BC, near Vernon

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At the Coldstream Ranch, Shigehisa Hikichi met and worked for Eijiro Koyama. Later, he moved to the Rainbow Ranche to work, and stayed for a short time with the Koyama family in Winfield.

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Shigehisa 'Sam' and Tome Hikichi

Credits:
Mits Hikichi
Lake Country Museum, interview 2012

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Shigehisa and Tome Hikichi
1920
Japan

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In 1920, Shigehisa Hikichi returned to Fukushima-ken, Japan for an arranged marriage to Tome Abe. Shigehisa was thirty years old, Tome, twenty-four. The Hikichis returned to the Rainbow Ranche, where they lived and worked for thirty-five years.

These two wedding photos were taken with Tome wearing traditional dress in Japan, and in Vancouver, with Tome wearing her new western dress.

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Shigehisa and Tome Hikichi
1920
Vancouver, BC

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Tome Hikichi adapts to Canadian life

Credits:
Mits Hikichi
Lake Country Museum, interview 2012

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Shigehisa and Tome had five children, all sons: Shoichi, Hisao, Akira, Isao, and Mitsuru 'Mits'.

Here, the two oldest boys, Shoichi and Hisao, are pictured with their parents Tome and Shigehisa, and Shigehisa's uncle Kichisaburo.

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The Hikichi family
1923
Rainbow Ranche, Okanagan Centre, BC

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Shigehisa 'Sam' Hikichi was the foreman at the Rainbow Ranche from the early 1920s until 1949, when the Rainbow was subdivided. Mr. Hikichi is known for being the first foreman at the Rainbow Ranche to start the procedure of crop estimating, a method of calculating the expected fruit yield.

The majority of the Japanese workers at the Rainbow lived at the Ranche, in a camp with bunkhouses and a kitchen. The Rainbow's manager, James Goldie, built a tennis court for his workers. When the packinghouse was in full operation, it employed a large number of workers, most of whom were Japanese.

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Grading apples at the Rainbow Ranche packinghouse
1920s
Rainbow Ranche, Okanagan Centre, BC

Credits:
Lake Country Museum, Image #2009.003.007

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James Goldie (L), the manager of the Rainbow Ranche, considered Shigehisa Hikichi (R) to be his 'right-hand man'.