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A loss of our living history — farewell, Betty Toyota

More than a week has passed since the sudden death of Betty Toyota.

BY LORNE ECKERSLEY

More than a week has passed since the sudden death of Betty Toyota and I continue to find myself surprised that she is gone. She reminded me of the Energizer Bunny when I often saw her out on her daily walks. At 92, she was as fit and active as many people half her age.

Betty and her husband, Tak, were an integral part of the Creston Valley community from the day they arrived in 1946, but it was really only by the most unusual circumstances that they ended up in Creston. They were among the unfortunate 27,000 people of Japanese origin who were uprooted from their west coast lives and shuttled into the BC Interior (or even Alberta or further east) in the months following the December 8, 1942 bombing of Pearl Harbour.

Despite opposition from RCMP brass and some outspoken members of his own party, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government responded to Japan’s entry into World War II by placing restrictions on Japanese immigrants and their offspring, especially those in the fishing industry. Following the Americans’ lead, that focus then broadened to include all people of Japanese descent. The uprooting continued until four years after the war ended.

Fate placed Betty Umakoshi and Tak Toyota into the same internment camp near Slocan. While the federal government was busy selling off their families’ assets on the West Coast to help pay for the internment costs, the young adults (Betty was only 17 when she was interned), their siblings and mothers by all reports made the best of a truly pathetic part of Canadian history. Many females in the camp were provided with sewing machines to encourage them to make some sort of living, but somehow Betty ended up with a typewriter. Soon she was working as the camp secretary, and her skills would later prove invaluable when she and Tak became entrepreneurs in Creston.

Tak also used his time in the internment camp to hone skills that would make him one of Creston’s best-known citizens. He was a born organizer who knew you don’t get what you don’t ask for. It was that attitude that helped him convince camp officials that a vehicle was needed to transport residents for appointments and emergencies. Soon he was driving the only car in the camp.

He also began organizing dances and activities to give young people something to look forward to on weekends. Once he and Betty got established in Creston (they were married here in 1946 and had their first child, Ron, a year later) Tak started Teen Town and regular dances became part and parcel of teen life in Creston for many years to come. The Ambassadors, who have occasionally reunited in recent years, were among the bands that emerged as a result of Teen Town and its need for live musical performers.

Like First Nations people and Chinese immigrants, Canadian Japanese have a long history of sorry treatment, no doubt in large part because they are physically identifiable. As a Canadian of European descent I cannot begin to imagine how it must have felt for people like the Umakoshi and Toyota families, and their fellow internees, to have been torn away from their lives and then learn that their homes, business and personal property were being sold off for no better reason than their past connection to a country we were at war with (Betty and Tak were both born in Canada). Fear does not bring out the best in people.

While hundreds of Japanese Canadians returned to Japan in the years following World War II, most elected to get on with their lives and a surprising number stayed in the same area as they were interned. Like Betty and Tak, many became successful entrepreneurs and marvelous contributors to community and country.

When Betty Toyota collapsed suddenly last Monday morning, never to regain consciousness, she was in the company of her daughter Joy, who along with her husband Terry had flown in from Vancouver Island for a visit. She had visited with her son Gary, in Cranbrook recently and had also spent days visiting a sister in the Cranbrook hospital while she recovered from surgery. Her family and her friends were Betty’s source of joy in life, and her daily walks around town were proof that an active life has its benefits. She was healthy and fit until she drew her last breath.

Betty Toyota’s passing gives us an opportunity to remember those who have accomplished much under difficult circumstances, and the legacy that she and her beloved Tak created can be found in every fibre of our community.