Words that Last: Remembering Stan Fukawa

Stanley Fukawa was born in Mission, BC in 1937. His family spent their internment years in Vernon, BC. They returned to the Lower Mainland in 1949 and started a berry farm in Mount Lehman. Beginning in 1956 Stan studied Asian Studies and Sociology at the University of British Columbia. From 1958-59 he completed an exchange at Keio University where he made a group of lifelong friends. It was here that he also honed the Japanese language skills that would open many doors for him throughout his life. In 1959 he met Masako (Mas) Shinde at UBC and they fell in love. They married in 1961 and have been soulmates for 65 years.

Stan taught in colleges and universities around the world, including London, Tokyo, and Nanaimo. He was a certified translator of Japanese to English for more than 25 years. He and Mas loved to travel, and visited many places associated with Japanese Canadian history and Japanese diaspora communities. He wrote about these communities for many publications, including Nikkei Images, the journal of the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre (NNMCC). Stan sat on the Editorial Committee of Nikkei Images from 2000 to 2012.

When it came to writing about and honouring the history of Japanese Canadians, Stan felt that preservation alone was not enough. He believed Japanese Canadian stories should be celebrated. There was much to be proud of, as the preceding generations of parents and grandparents had worked hard to ensure that subsequent generations led a good life. Stan was able to access early Japanese Canadian history through Japanese language sources, and this was instrumental in his research and work with Mas on the books Nikkei Fishermen on the BC Coast: Their Biographies and Photographs (2007) and Spirit of the Nikkei Fleet: BC’s Japanese Canadian Fishermen (2009). The latter won the Canada-Japan Literary Award in 2010. 

Stan was very generous with his service to the community. He was the second President of the Japanese Canadian National Museum (JCNM) from 2000 to 2003, and was a part of history preservation and fundraising. He felt that amalgamating the JCNM and the National Nikkei Heritage Centre would make them stronger. Stan signed the merger agreement in 2003, combining the two societies to form the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre (NNMHC), which in 2012 became the Nikkei National Museum and Cultural Centre.

Stan also sat on the Board of the NNMCC and the Nikkei Auxiliary, and often helped emcee Auxiliary events. He was a foodie, and enjoyed trying local cuisines from his travels, bringing them back as recipes to try at home. He was a part of the Auxiliary Book Committee that published the Everyone’s a Chef cookbook, contributing several recipes to this collection of tried-and-true favorites of the Auxiliary members and their friends.

With sincere appreciation, we recognize Masako’s generous gift to the Nikkei National Museum in honour of Stan. His work and memory continues to live on through his numerous contributions to Japanese Canadian research and scholarship, and the seminal changes brought on by his leadership within the community. Each time we read his words, we remember the consideration, efforts, and dedication he put into giving them shape.