Masajiro Miyazaki, CM (November 24, 1899 – July 23, 1984) was a Canadian

osteopathic physician Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO or D.O., or in Australia DO USA) is a medical degree conferred by the 38 osteopathic medical schools in the United States. DO and Doctor of Medicine (MD) degrees are equivalent: a DO graduate may become licens ...

who practised in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

prior to

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. During

, he was appointed as a

coroner A coroner is a government or judicial official who is empowered to conduct or order an inquest into Manner of death, the manner or cause of death, and to investigate or confirm the identity of an unknown person who has been found dead within th ...

by the

British Columbia Provincial Police The British Columbia Provincial Police (BCPP) was the provincial police service of British Columbia, Canada, between 1858 and 1950. One of the first law enforcement agencies in North America, the British Columbia Provincial Police was formed ...

in the town of

Lillooet, British Columbia Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On British ...

. In addition to coroner's duties he also served as effective general practitioner in the Lillooet area, including for the area's four wartime "self-supporting centres". Miyazaki's practice also included the

Japanese Canadian internment From 1942 to 1949, Canada forcibly relocated and incarcerated over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia in the name of "national security". The majority were Canadian ...

camp at Taylor Lake. Towards the end of his life, Miyazaki was recognized for his services to the community, which included founding the local ambulance service and instigating a proper hospital for Lillooet, by being enrolled in the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

Early life

Miyazaki was born in the vicinity of

Hikone 280px, Hikone City Hall is a city located in Shiga Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 111,958 in 49066 households and a population density of 570 persons per km². The total area of the city is . Geography Hikone i ...

City in Japan and moved to Canada in 1913 with his father. Graduating from the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

in 1925, he was unable to pursue medical training in Canada due to laws preventing post-secondary study by Japanese Canadians and pursued study in the United States, at the Kirksville College of Osteopathy and Surgery in

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

, graduating in 1929. Dr. Miyazaki received his licence to practise from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia but pursued further training in Los Angeles, ultimately opening an office in Vancouver in 1930. During his time in Vancouver he was active in Japanese Canadian community affairs, and served as treasurer of the Canadian Japanese Association from 1938 to 1941.

World War II

Japanese relocation

Following the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

by the

Japanese Empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

on December 7, 1941, wartime

paranoia Paranoia is an instinct or thought process that is believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of delusion and irrationality. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concer ...

led to the forced evacuation of Japanese and Canadians of Japanese ancestry away from the

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, ...

coast to the province's interior and beyond to other provinces farther east. One of the sites chosen for these relocations was a semi-abandoned hydroelectric-development village at

Shalalth Shalalth and South Shalalth are unincorporated communities on the northern shore near the western end of Seton Lake in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The localities are by road about northwest of Lillooet, but o ...

(then known as Bridge River), one of them at East Lillooet in the

Fraser Canyon The Fraser Canyon is a major landform of the Fraser River where it descends rapidly through narrow rock gorges in the Coast Mountains en route from the Interior Plateau of British Columbia to the Fraser Valley. Colloquially, the term "Fraser Ca ...

, across the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

from the town of

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...

; Miyazaki was first relocated to Bridge River and then upon his appointment as coroner was moved to the town of Lillooet. Other sites in the area were at

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 Cree ...

McGillivray Falls McGillivray may refer to: People * McGillivray (surname) Places * McGillivray Creek (British Columbia), a creek in the Lillooet Country of British Columbia ** McGillivray, British Columbia (formerly McGillivray Falls) in the Lillooet Country of B ...

. These were not fenced

internment camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

, like the infamous one at

Tashme The Tashme Incarceration Camp ( nglicized pronunciationor apanese pronunciation was a purpose-built incarceration camp constructed to forcibly detain people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast of Canada during World War II after th ...

, and mostly included family groups who had been able to "buy" a better situation in the Interior, with some chance of work, although comings-and-goings were still regulated by police and permits. Many of the

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

at the "Bridge River" townsite worked for the

Pacific Great Eastern Railway The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

and the cartage companies, while those at McGillivray Falls relocated to nearby Devine to work in a sawmill. At

, the presence of the Japanese helped keep the wartime merchant economy going, and the Japanese interest in market gardening helped rebirth the valley's small produce industry.

Career in Lillooet

One of the relocatees at

Bridge River The Bridge River is an approximately long river in southern British Columbia. It flows south-east from the Coast Mountains. Until 1961, it was a major tributary of the Fraser River, entering that stream about six miles upstream from the town of ...

was Masajiro Miyazaki, a Canadian-trained osteopath whose practice had been thriving in

before the war. When the town of

doctor Doctor or The Doctor may refer to: Personal titles * Doctor (title), the holder of an accredited academic degree * A medical practitioner, including: ** Physician ** Surgeon ** Dentist ** Veterinary physician ** Optometrist *Other roles ** ...

died and a wartime replacement was not to be had to perform autopsies, the town's provincial costabulary recruited Miyazaki to act in the capacity of

. Special permits were created to allow him to stay in Lillooet instead of at Bridge River. This position quickly evolved into that of all-around town-and-country doctor, dentist and obstetrician, with patients throughout the whole region from Pemberton- Mount Currie to

Pavilion In architecture, ''pavilion'' has several meanings: * It may be a subsidiary building that is either positioned separately or as an attachment to a main building. Often it is associated with pleasure. In palaces and traditional mansions of Asia ...

and Lytton. Miyazaki's practice also included the

Japanese-Canadian internment From 1942 to 1949, Canada forcibly relocated and Internment, incarcerated over 22,000 Japanese Canadians—comprising over 90% of the total Japanese Canadian population—from British Columbia in the name of "national security". The majority we ...

camp at Taylor Lake, northeast of

70 Mile House 7 (seven) is the natural number following 6 and preceding 8. It is the only prime number preceding a cube (algebra), cube. As an early prime number in the series of positive integers, the number seven has greatly symbolic associations in religion ...

, a long distance away via the tortuous roads of the

and the

Thompson Canyon The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The river ...

. His autobiography, ''My Sixty Years In Canada'', contains many accounts of harrowing trips on mountain roads and rail lines in difficult weather and adverse conditions.

Miyazaki House

Miyazaki was invited to use as his surgery and residence Longford House, a late 19th-century manor near the main street owned by one of the town's oldest families (see Caspar Phair). Like many of the relocated Japanese in this district, Miyazaki stayed on after the war and became a major community leader during the 1950s, leading the campaign for a local ambulance service and proper hospital — despite longstanding resistance from the provincial medical establishment over his qualifications, as he was only an osteopath and not a

medical doctor A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

. In 1983, after Miyazaki donated the property to the community when he left Lillooet that year, Longford House was renamed

Miyazaki House The Miyazaki House (formerly the Longford House) in Lillooet, British Columbia is an elegant house built by Caspar Phair in the 1880s. It was partially modelled after Mrs. Phair's previous home, Eyrecourt Castle, in County Galway, Ireland. The g ...

. The house remains open as a heritage site for tours and still exhibits Miyazaki's office as he left it. His office still contains all original articles, including surgical instruments, medical texts, and skeletal displays. The house also has displays of local artwork and the history of the house before Miyazaki moved there.

Order of Canada

Towards the end of his life, Miyazaki was recognized for his services to the community by being enrolled in the

, an honour shared by one of

's other notable citizens,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...

-born Margaret Lally "Ma" Murray. His Order of Canada commendation reads: C.M. (Member) December 15, 1976 April 20, 1977 Miyazaki died of an infection in

Kamloops, British Columbia Kamloops ( ) is a city in south-central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the South flowing North Thompson River and the West flowing Thompson River, east of Kamloops Lake. It is located in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District, w ...

on July 23, 1984.

References

External links

''Commonwealth and Foreign Awards, Masajiro Miayazaki'', records reference

National Archives of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is t ...

*''My Sixty Years in Canada'', Masajiro Miyazaki, self-published, Lillooet BC, 1973
''Masajiro Miyazaki fonds'', textual record, graphical materials
record,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazaki, Masajiro Japanese emigrants to Canada Members of the Order of Canada People from Vancouver Lillooet Country Bridge River Country Year of birth missing 1984 deaths University of British Columbia alumni Canadian osteopathic physicians People from Lillooet Canadian coroners Canadian general practitioners