Grace Eiko Thomson (born 1933) is a

Japanese-Canadian are Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Canadians are mostly concentrated in Western Canada, especially in the province of British Columbia, which hosts the largest Japanese community in the country with the majority of them living ...

internment camp survivor. She is the founder of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre in British Columbia and a memoirist.

Early life

She was born Eiko Nishikihama in 1933 in the Japanese Fishermen's Hospital in the

Steveston Steveston, founded in the 1880s, is a neighbourhood of Richmond in Metro Vancouver. On the southwest tip of Lulu Island, the village is a historic port and salmon canning centre at the mouth of the South Arm of the Fraser River. The early 1900s st ...

neighbourhood of

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, Canada. Her father, Taguchi Torasaburo, and mother, Sawae, were both naturalized Canadian citizens, having emigrated from Japan, and she was one of five children the couple raised in Vancouver's Japantown, or ''Paueru-gai''. In 1942 the family was upended when they were forcibly relocated to an internment site in

Minto City Minto City, often called just Minto, sometimes Minto Mines, Minto Mine, Skumakum, or "land of plenty", was a gold mining town in the Bridge River Valley of British Columbia from 1930 to 1936, located at the confluence of that river with Gun Creek ...

, in accordance with the

War Measures Act The ''War Measures Act'' (french: Loi sur les mesures de guerre; 5 George V, Chap. 2) was a statute of the Parliament of Canada that provided for the declaration of war, invasion, or insurrection, and the types of emergency measures that could t ...

. The family was not allowed to return to their coastal home after the war, moving to Middlechurch, Manitoba, and eventually settling in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

in 1949 when restrictions on the movement of Japanese Canadians were finally lifted. In 1959, she married Alistair MacDonald Thomson, and the couple would have two children of their own.

Career

Thomson always had a keen interest in the arts and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the

University of Manitoba The University of Manitoba (U of M, UManitoba, or UM) is a Canadian public research university in the province of Manitoba.University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

. She has worked as a curator at art galleries in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, and as an advisor to the Sanavik Inuit Cooperative in Nunavut. In the 1990s she returned to Vancouver to help care for her mother, accepting a position at the

Burnaby Art Gallery The Burnaby Art Gallery (abbreviated as BAG) is an art museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The museum is located on the northern periphery of Deer Lake Park, situated off of Deer Lake Avenue. The museum occupies Fairacres Mansion, a histor ...

. In 1995 Thomson was asked to coordinate an event for artists of Japanese heritage from across Canada, sparking a renewed interest in the history of her community. In 2000 she became the inaugural curator and director of the new Japanese Canadian National Museum (now the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre). She resigned from that position in 2002, but continued to collaborate with the museum as a guest curator. From 2005 until her 2010 retirement she was president of the

National Association of Japanese Canadians National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

''Chiru Sakura: Falling Cherry Blossoms''

In 2021, Thomson published a memoir based on her family's experience, ''Chiru Sakura: Falling Cherry Blossoms'', published by Caitlin Press. At 84, Thomson's mother began keeping a journal in Japanese, recording her memories and family history. The memoir weaves together Thomson's translations of passages from her mother's diary along with her own stories of identity, trauma and racism and her efforts to find social justice for herself and others. ''Chiru Sakura'' was shortlisted for the 2022

City of Vancouver Book Award The City of Vancouver Book Award is a Canadian literary award, that has been presented annually by the city of Vancouver, British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomson, Grace Eiko 1933 births Living people Activists from British Columbia Alumni of the University of Leeds Canadian art curators Canadian women activists Canadian women memoirists Japanese-Canadian internees People from Richmond, British Columbia University of Manitoba alumni Writers from Vancouver 21st-century Canadian memoirists 21st-century Canadian women writers Canadian women curators