Po�* J
THE NEW CANADIAN
D*c.
1953.
i .
THt NEW CANADIAN
An lmltpf*Jtnt f*t*9*s*-E*flit& OrgM.
Published on Wcdoe$4*7 tad Saturday of each week
u ft medium of expression and news outlet
Among tho*e of Japanese origin in Canada,
GEORGE NISHIMURA..............,'.. -----Editor
TAKAICHI iTMlEgfTK'fV' Japanese Section Editor
KEN MCXRI ' ��_'�'� ".....'... �'.;';.; . ' ' \ -''��:..' Adyertuing
479 Qn��n St. W. � EM. 6-5005 � Toronto, Ont. Autfe�rUed M vecond <?!*�� "mall. Pert Office Dept., Ottawa,
IN FINAL TRIBUTE,,.
Countless organisations have come and gone, for varied purposes at varied times, but none was so conspicuously significant to us as the Cp-operativve Committee on .Japanese Canadian.*. Last week, after a decade of extremely noteworthy existence, the Co-operative Committee was formally disbanded. Its work was done.
The following excerpt from the afterword of the pamphletj '''They-Made Democracy Work" by Edith Fowke, eloquently describes the substantial role played by the Co-operative Committee on behalf of we citizens of Japanese origin. .//. ;':.;��. ��'�;.'�.:;�.�.-;: ..-.'"... /;::../.'�.,.;' :'�.�:� ';,.-. ;
: "Today the Japanese Canadians are no longer treated as second-class citizens. The bitterness and." discriminalion of the war and postwar years have largely disappeared , , . Today, in many Canadian; cities, Japanese Canadians are working in :a wide variety of trades and professions, and they are freely accepted by most of llieir neighbours and fellow-�y. workers;"'-' . ..-:� '�/",'��.'� :..��,:�/.'.��'����''."'.�'.��..."-/� V ��''�;���. '��� �'. .V<: :"'.'�
*'��� tbe issues which led to the forming of the Go-operative Contmittee on Ja)>aiiese Canadians; have now been settled. The committee was not solely responsible "for this "settlement,; but rt ;did play a leading part.; It was the instrument' by wliich thousands of Canadians who wanted to see justice done \vere able lei^influencegovernment policy.Without the committee, the 'Very- local ant i Japanese minority Would have continued to make its attitude prevail.
"Because ,the Go-operative Commitee. provided a rallying point for the maiiy: people .of good will / across the country, it was able to persuade the government .to modify or -reverse its stand time lifter time. Over the critical years, it;acted ;as a watchdog of denic cracy^making its voice heard on issue after issue, shifting its emphasis where necessary, but continuing ; to press for full citizenship rights for Japanese . " Canadians... - . ^ v .-
V "lite particular crisis :that called the Co-operative Committee into beinjt has now passed, but there will alvravs be. fronts on "\vhieJr our civil liberties are threatened ��;�-.; The... Co-operative.-.. Com.mittee. � is one clear-cut. example of how individual ciii.z'en?,'. by . banding "together-, managed! lo change the; course of events iii ji vrrv .significant way. They made..(lemo-cracy work..:" ; .
.Indeed, thev made d.emorracy work.. And now., in .final tribute to. iho-e ;thaf helped lo make. it.workv we join in with others on \\\\< vreasiou in rendering our.---oler'nn appreciation so {nil
A p�ychok>gist'B
reply to MS.
M. HOSHIKO
Man is the most tragic of
animals
he, the hungry of heart, who hides his hunger from
them who could fill him; he of the lonely heart who is afraid to speak to the
.stranger who is afraid to-open the empty
.rooms of himself that : the homeless multitude may
.come in;
he of the loving heart, who is yet afraid to give himself
in love
he' of the courageous heart, who is prey of many little fears; he of the pioneering, questing
mind, who yet shivers in the chill wind
of .new ideas;
he of the great wohderlust who hides in the prison of the
little, familiar room; he who- hungers for freedom, and yet grows sated in his fvat
slavery; - .
he who thirsts for a righteous
iu��
_ and destroys his integrky with
petty evils; :.
lie of the great dreams and -."' Visiori$, �. � : ' :. ;. .-�:
who i follows Mill the narrow, outworn pathways others have made, before him.
Man is the most tragic of
animals, ',. �'",..; for his cpiild be a "stature like to : the gods of old; : � .
he could stand oiv the niighty .
hitUtops of being-, . / : and yjet he lies in the warm ' . '�_'.: lazy dust. ; - ; ; :. - ' ;
He has Written a new .law of life. a la w of l,ove and . service and
�fellowship, ' - ~ '": and h? dies in the- welter- of ' his. brother's. blood. He -could walk forth into a . .��now ja'iid. �.-; v ;
where never a creature has
lived before,^ . -. .
where" truth is the sunlight .of
each day,: ;�.,�.�� ; y
where beauty is the garment.--.-" ./"ofAife .-:-" .�� . ;-/; " -.;- .';; ''"'."� where each "inan finds : the
wholeness of .life in;tlie.'
whole, life of his neighbours but i^an is the most .tragic
of animals "'. . .'. -for" he turns back. to. the:. warm �
f amiliar darkness of yesterday, ,aiu} ho. stumbles and blunders
his way to the hungry grave;-r-itd the jr-vMHl life ;uid t-he shining
vision �; ' .. ' '
>oeni at last to be but a strang^.-�" a?ul unreal dream. but a faint and strange melody.
never p*ajv<1 on an inst '��-�" "that i;e.vor-was nor be.-. Man is tho most tragic. of-
By CINDERELLA .____
animals.
(Quoted from "Hollo. Man" by
Kor.r.oth L. - Tattori. Beacon
lYoss. liUT.)
Two Komloops Nisei Enlist in RCAF
KAMLOOPS. B.C. � A former t^achrr at the Japar.e*e
"John Brown's Body"-An Unforgettable Experience
CEEING "John/'Bro^Ti's Body" was ah unforgettable experience.
Ever since I, as an awkward, inarticulate youngster, pranced around in self-taught .interpretations on a makeshift stage in a neighbour's backyard, the theatre has been a compelling interest with me. Arid the theatre, if it did not develop in me any great talent for acting, did develop a very critical sense of what is and what is not good acting.
When it was announced that Charles Laughton was going to do another bit of experimental theatre with a hand-picked cast, naturally I was interested. The reading was to be "John ..Brown's. Body".-.- an epic poem by Stephen Vincent Benet, and the cast was to include Raymond Massey, Tyrone Power and Anne Baxter. Of Raymond Massey I had no qualms. But I did have some private reservations with regard to Tyrone Power and .Anne Baxter-good movie stars, but . /, . �".. ' � �'� .""- ':-��� ��;''� ; ,'''"�' ''"�' '�.' .'' ��"�� * �'.� : *':��" �''* ''. /. �.. V '�/ '� V-.' ' �'�.. ' �jv. Tyrone Power walked onto the stage, acknowledged his audience, and proceeded to tell simply and directly that he and his colleagues were. :going to present a great American poet's conception of a period when the American nation passed from adolescence to manhood, He stated briefly-his part in the'recital--that of carrying a part of tne narrative and the"�'romantic, and younger figures as they came up in the epic narrative." He then introduced Anne Baxter who would be responsible for certain. narrative passages and for all the women who have their part to play in the civil war, and Raymond Massey, whose shoulders were to "carry along the political and psychological implications" as well as the older characters as they happened in the great historic event. ; �.".'
The chorus, of 22 men and women^ he explained, who were 'seated. af little to: the left centre of the .stage, would provide the musical or choral-spoken background, to illustrate,'or set the mood, or even jnterpret the action. / ;
; Then,-haying set the stege, with only a narrow .railing outlined in:red for the props, and three microphones between them and the footlights,;the trio were left to their own resources-- to give a drainatic recital, word for-word, as Benet wrote it-of that bit ter time in American History. : �- ' . �-�'�'�.
And: then, a kind of magic was wrought. Within the bounds of a /single stage,:three;actors and a chorus, with only three .micro- ' phpr.cs and a railing, painted for me the great human strutfelc
1 i � -1 � � �' � **� . * . '� '�-��_� . . � '. � ^^ .-.-�- � .�� . _" ^
(Continuation)
Abraham I.'�tv.v:-. ^ <=';r.p\-.h^r.o^t man! turmr.ir f^ h:>" God In his .h^v;:r of .trava'1. !;iyiv�r v.akcd bof^re his Cn-^ator a torr.v.^'tod s^ul --
wo t'on-.f-4 fsoo t-^ faoo w!:h h'.irrii'ity nr.d trroatriO??.
AT>I AT'."O F!:i\v--r's p-rtrait ^f Molofa. iu?t 'sfvo^trTn. tr\*-'r.c to
roa-*-"1^. '.ir^'.iOv'^ssf'.r'y \v~.th ;v ^.I*S:,IT> -s^o oa~ only 5t"^?o. sido by
?i<io with h r !�:.�;::-,� -.>f .t^ M:?:r.-ss ^f Wircraro Hal!. "cryir-F ^ut
pa#5iiT3!r'.y ;vc.i!T'-- t'-r- ir.vridors ovt*^ as the' fla'mo? ^irsre hor
hair--ard :h-> w.:v.'< � f tho h^r^o *Ho oarv-o :o a* a br�i^. cr/.rr.Me
around her- Arr.o P-At-r �at.-ho^ tho �,-!-i'^s farces of rc<.^*\
with an und^rst.ir.iiirc- r - ^-r<>-- p-r:raya*5 havo revrr criver; h^r Taraka. and ar-:h� r
a chance "to: snow. ": Xi* :. r^� OTratsu. have su��l-,
It WB� a Mfworabi^ rxprtH^nce. T w;:r.o^*?xi Ia?t r.ichf. #^*rr- r. < n: rxasr-'ritj,-r.s. �
thing which I had alway* be!:evr>d. Ai'tirc. cryar a* tire r-rr^ fro�, . Tru* pnir !- ft o~. X.-v. 2.S by:
vitkin and has no nred for aur-niary J>TY�P^. Trr*^? F^-wer. Anne tail f*�r init.ai training a: ?t. ;
Baxter and Raymond Xaasey proved rt to rw. John, X. B.
. against the Yankee NorthV
I saw the little, human people thrust into action: young Jack Ell_yat, young and untried,.and his more cj^ical^ hardened companion Bailley; young, Ellyat'g quiet .father with his evening papers . and his old spectacles;; young:Ellyat's mother who felt about war as only women;can; Clay^ Wingate of- Southern Aristocracy, ami his niother, Jfary Lou Wingate, mistress^ of Wingate/Hal!^ liating the Yankees with thoir last breath; young Melora, love<l by Jack Ellyat^her young new loye flowering swiftly to passionate fruition; Sally Dupre,; half French a;nd half Southerner, as unpredictable as her background^ possessing^^ Clay \Vingate with a fierce.intensity;: old Cudjo, the white-haired, black-faced manservant of Wingate Hall.,.
:T saw the big people, the men who shaped the' destiny of the nation -- Lee the great Southern leader both as -a', man' and as a ?.oMier: and Abraham-Lincoln! who fought for the preservation of the Union at. all costs'... . : '. ;. . ;
. ' '/ - "'� "�' ' � .. :*- '"�* '' � *.'��.--' �" ' :" �" ' ' '" ''���
. Arfislry was the word for the three who Brought Benet's pano-.rama of people arid events to pulsating, throbbing, life.
In a voice sensitive as a master's violin,-resonant, modulated and controlled, and Avith diction as clear as any I:"have ever heard, . Tyrone Power created, a series of unforgettable' portraits with dramatic and compelling .power. His young Jack Kllyat, troubled with the physical discomforts of numerous reversals 'in war; his samo^ Jack Ellyat's sensitive approach to lovo: his Yankee raider quailing under the scorn "and hate of an old Souths;: woman: his passionate Clay Wingate, spitting out his hatred for � ho Yankee.-' even a* he stops a .bullet with his life-these will cw back to mo in memory as a thrilling- exporienco. His ability t/. squr-7-every ounce of meaning from, men* ordinary words, i.> .t'aW.t. for narrative description (given in the first plac^ by a groat pool, of course) was perhaps best rF\-eaIed in the passasre whrro. he describod the fast-approaching enemy above the horizon .setting fii-e to even-thing in their path. His delivery of that dra-vat.V passage left a sting of smoke in our eyes, while in our n<-".'ri!> we ^rrelt the acrid odour of burning hor>:es, ar.d ir. o-jr hoarts :h-weight of a terriWe tragedy.
Where Tyrone Pr.wer acted w;rh dramatic f?re.?rd irfer.?:-y. Ma�?ey's performance was rrarkr-d with c.-.rtr.V% 'i rr-*-a r?stra;?!t which suirfcestM leashed -"v-tiors ->f grf\:t s-^n. -ready t�> bor*t if tempred. WhA wi?! ev- r forsr^t Rayyr.<^r.d ?Py s incomparable Cadjo. a bl.-xck ?lave *** has had rrori thar *hane r,f *orro^. ard yet can Traiutalrr 3 philosophy of jrer:!e and a tolerance that i? itewrmis m th� face of hrtolerar.ee. Mn?*ey** Ciidjo i* human di|m:ty personified, eapmbte of ^reat�e*^ �rarpas?e* pettines?. And wh�n Rarmcmd X*��ey become*
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