This portion of the recording pertains to Chiyoko "Chic" (Haya) Tanaka's memories of her early life in Burnaby. Chic discusses how her family first came to Burnaby from West Vancouver and how, two years later, she and her husband bought the lot directly beside her parent's property. Chic also menti…
This portion of the recording pertains to Chiyoko "Chic" (Haya) Tanaka's memories of her early life in Burnaby. Chic discusses how her family first came to Burnaby from West Vancouver and how, two years later, she and her husband bought the lot directly beside her parent's property. Chic also mentions how she traveled to and from her workplace.
Date Range
1957-1959
Photo Info
Chiyoko (Haya) Tanaka on her wedding day, surrounded by friends and family, 1959. Item no. 549-075.
Length
0:08:00
Interviewer
Damer, Eric
Interview Date
November 20, 2012
Scope and Content
Recording is an interview with Chiyoko "Chic" (Haya) Tanaka conducted by Burnaby Village Museum employee Eric Damer, November 20, 2012. Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre Assistant Archivist Linda Reid lends her support to the interview. Major theme discussed: recreational activities.
Biographical Notes
Chiyoko “Chic” Haya (later Tanaka) moved to Burnaby with her parents in 1957. Although born in Steveston, Richmond, Chic had been removed from the coast with her family during the internment of Japanese-Canadians in 1942. After three years at a logging camp near Taylor Lake, BC, the family moved first to Forest Grove and then to the Great Northern Cannery in West Vancouver. With a loan from the owner of the cannery, Chic's father purchased several adjacent lots in Burnaby near Willingdon and Canada Way and moved his family to a new house soon after. Chic worked in Vancouver at the Bank of Montreal and married in 1959. She and her husband bought one of her father’s lots and moved next door.
Eric Damer is a lifelong British Columbian born in Victoria, raised in Kamloops, and currently residing in Burnaby. After studying philosophy at the University of Victoria, he became interested in the educational forces that had shaped his own life. He completed master’s and doctoral degrees in educational studies at the University of British Columbia with a particular interest in the history of adult and higher education in the province. In 2012, Eric worked for the City of Burnaby as a field researcher and writer, conducting interviews for the City Archives and Museum Oral History Program.