Leave It to Aiko Lillian Nakamura Maguire – Mar. 21, 2023 We got TV in our family around 1953. As a five year old, it had a big impact on me and influenced a lot of my views on “normal” family life in mainstream culture. Probably somewhat distorted… exaggerated…but nonetheless, a glimpse into how non-Japanese … Leave It to Aiko
A Unique Profession Lillian Nakamura Maguire – Sept. 2023 “Lillian?” I inched my way to the teacher’s desk for the interview in front of the class about my family. “So, what kind of work does your father do?” What business was it of my grade 5 teacher or the Regina School Board? My classmates’ parents … A Unique Profession
Adopted Prairie Home Lillian Nakamura Maguire – Sept. 2023 In 1978, my husband, son and I were living in North Delta, B.C. My oldest brother was living nearby in Vancouver. We all gathered at our place with my parents who were visiting us from Regina. They were barely settled, when my Dad took a sip … Adopted Prairie Home
Invest to Insure Your Freedom Lillian Nakamura Maguire – Nov. 23/22 – 11 pm In the 1930s my father worked on contract as a chick sexer for Bolivar Hatcheries in New Westminster, an area now known as Surrey in British Columbia. My parents settled into their new home and started a family with my oldest … Invest to Insure Your Freedom
When my Dad, Sadato Nakamura built our house in 1950, we were at the southeast end of the Regina city limits. The surrounding prairie field had buttercups, crocus, and tiger lilies. We gathered wildflowers for my mother, although the crocus soon lost its colour and shape after picking. My brother and his friends would gather … Prose Poem – Prairie Oasis
Ancestral Home Lillian Nakamura Maguire, November 2023 hermit crab scuttles away unearthed… memories of my Pacific home hermit crab scuttles away… unearthed memories of my Pacific home I observe the solitary life of the hermit crab. I’ve come to Long Beach on Vancouver Island with my husband and young son. I’ve never been here before, … Haibun – Prose Poem
We moved from the Yukon twice, the first time thinking that it was permanent and the second time knowing we would return. I still feel the ancestral pull of the ocean, but after over forty years of living in the Yukon, I now feel like I’ve found “home”along Horse Creek, as a settler on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council.
郷愁 （Kyosyu) – longing for home
Acknowledgement signed by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of the injustices done to Japanese Canadians during World War Two
Official Commemoration of Canadian Citizenship dated April 17, 1964 addressed to Sadato Nakamura of 2655 Winnipeg Street, Regina, Saskatchewan