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Award to Kiyoshi Shimizu
Kiyoshi was born in British Columbia of Japan-born parents who were extremely socially conscious and instilled in their daughter a devotion to helping others and fostering strong communities. One of only ten Japanese female students at the University of British Columbia, she hoped to attend the University of Toronto’s library school upon graduation but was told that it didn’t accept Japanese, Chinese, native Canadians or Jews. So she applied to the UBC school of social work in 1941 but was told that they couldn’t find her a field placement because she was a visible minority. She found her own work with the YWCA and the Tuberculosis Social Services.
1941/2 She and her family were among the 22,000 persons of Japanese descent who were subject to the War Measures Act and relocated to internment camps and other temporary settlements across Canada.
Her family was sent to Slocan, BC, where Shimizu was hired by the BC Security Commission to assist families in the internment camps in Slocan, Kaslo and New Denver. Her job was to set up welfare offices to aid Japanese families without funds to feed themselves. This qualified as a field project towards her final diploma in social work.
1943 To Toronto, where jobs included dressmaking, picking fruit and working with teenagers.
Her Victoria-born husband, Kunio Shimizu, a physics and maths graduate, spent part of the internment years working on a sugar-beet farm. He became a mathematician-statistician in Ottawa.
1986 National Board member of Abbeyfield Houses Society of Canada. On steering committee for Momiji Health Care Society. 1987 Back in her home province, she worked tirelessly as a volunteer in Vancouver and Victoria. Her involvement has included:
* Ottawa Cerebral Palsy Children’s Treatment Centre
* Seniors Research & Resources Society
* Seniors Advisory Committee to Ministry of Health
* James Bay New Horizons Centre
* Takata Japanese Garden Society
* Vancouver Island Japanese Canadian Society
1991 Persuaded the Vancouver Island Japanese Canadian Society to support the creation of a mural in Chemainus to celebrate the fact that 25% of the town’s population was once Japanese. She also backed the Buddhist Association’s plans for a memorial for Japanese buried in Chemainus, whose graves were desecrated in 1942.
She was involved with the Old Cemeteries Society’s work in marking the 150 graves of persons of Japanese descent in Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria.
She founded the Abbeyfield Heritage House in Victoria, assisted the House in Ottawa and served as Treasurer of the BC Chapter. Today she lives in Ottawa.
This wonderful lady survived one of the worst violations of Human Rights in BC history. The family property was confiscated and sold off in 1943, ostensibly to pay for their removal to the interior. Racist motives for the move are suspected, but there was a state of panic at the time that Japan might invade. We are proud and honoured to have this eminent Canadian Abbeyfielder in our midst.
