What do strawberries and a mailbox teach us about early Japanese-Canadian history?

Artist Kellen Hatanaka is drawing on the stories of early Japanese Canadians to create new public sculptures in Surrey, B.C.

The Stratford, Ont.-based multidisciplinary artist, whose own grandparents were among those forcibly sent to Japanese internment camps during the Second World War, said the project is very personal.

"It's been a way for me to connect back to my personal family's history because, like many Japanese Canadian families, it's not something that my grandparents would talk to us about openly," said Hatanaka.

"I think it's just a great opportunity to allow more people to learn about these narratives of our history in Canada."

In 1942, shortly after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King ordered the internment of 21,000 Japanese Canadians living in coastal B.C. Many were born and raised in Canada. They were forced to leave their homes and livelihoods, and sell off what they could to white neighbours, often for a fraction of what it was worth. The government went on to sell off their homes, land, stores and boats to fund the internment.

At the time, there were about 500 Japanese Canadians living in Surrey, according to the project report.The City of Surrey has commissioned Hatanaka's sculptures for Newton's R.A. Nicholson Park and Inouye Park, both in a neighbourhood once home to Japanese-Canadian farmers known as Strawberry Hill.

Hatanaka's first sculpture, Stone Fruit, will be installed at R.A. Nicholson Park. It will feature a bronze cast of a spilled container of stone strawberries, acknowledging the history of Japanese-Canadian berry farmers sent to internment camps.

"For me, I was just thinking about the panic and the trauma of being uprooted — and imagining that moment as a berry container being spilled and then left," he said, noting the container looks set into the ground as if it'd been there for a long time.

The second sculpture will honour Zennosuke Inouye, a World War II veteran and farmer who is believed to be the only Japanese Canadian to successfully get his land back after internment, said Hatanaka.

"He did so by writing 80 letters to the Government of Canada, arguing and standing up for himself — and eventually being successful in getting his land back," he said.

"The mailbox ties into his history ... To me, it's also a very distinct symbol of rural communities, farming communities, and also a symbol of land ownership." The bronze sculpture of the mailbox will be on display at Inouye Park, a green space named after him.

Hatanaka's design was selected by a committee of Japanese-Canadian community members as part of an initiative from the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society to implement 29 community projects across B.C., said Kristin Hardie, heritage manager for the City of Surrey.

Hardie said his design has "poignant imagery" that will create "a curious and accessible entrance" into a difficult story.

The project is aimed at confronting the injustices of what happened, while creating spaces where the community can gather — and spark discussions connecting people to the history of those that came before them, she said.

Hatanaka said the work is part of his artistic practice of confronting uncomfortable histories.

"It's a shameful part of our history," Hatanaka said. "As an artist, it's been part of my practice to try to tell these stories and bring these narratives to light in a contemporary context, so that people who don't know these stories can learn more about them, and these stories aren't forgotten, especially in the political climate that we sort of find ourselves in these days."

Although his grandparents, who lived through internment, have since died, exploring these histories helps him understand their stories better.

"I just hope that they would be proud," he said. "It's me trying to understand their story a bit better and relate to them and continue on their memory in a way that's meaningful to me and hopefully it would be to them as well."

He's also been fortunate to meet with other people from that generation who have been supportive and encouraging of his work.

"That's been some of the most meaningful and important sort of bits of feedback I've had throughout my practice," he said.

This isn't the first time Hatanaka has used his art to tell revealing histories of Japanese-Canadian internment. He's also done a series about the Vancouver Asahi, a Japanese-Canadian baseball team, who was disbanded by the government during the Second World War due to internment.

The team overcame adversity and won multiple titles, becoming a source of pride for the community, he said.

"It resonated so strongly with me," he said. "We lost this really thriving team. We lost our thriving communities, industries, fishing and farming. So it really was this way that I could find my way into the story."

The next step for the project is the final design and engineering phase. From there, the sculptures will be off to fabrication, he said. He is making the mailbox sculpture in the studio, which will then be bronze cast. The larger components he's partnered with fabricators to create.

The city expects Stone Fruit and Rural Mailbox to be installed by fall 2026.