The Japanese diaspora in Canada, according to the Statistics Committee of Canada, has about 100 thousand people (more than 62 thousand of them are Japanese ^of mixed ancestry1), who mainly live in the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Toronto and in their environs. Interest in Japanese culture was encouraged by the adoption in Canada in 1971 of the state policy of multiculturalism, on the one hand, and on the other - the economic interests of the Canadian government, which relied on Japan as its main economic and strategic partner in the Asia-Pacific region. At the same time, 4 centers for the study of Japan and China were established in Canada - at the universities of Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, and the Center of Canada - at the Sofia University of Tokyo.

CANADIAN MULTICULTURALISM AND ASIA-PACIFIC COUNTRIES

The concept of "multiculturalism" in Canada is interpreted very broadly, not limited to the policy of cultural integration of new immigrants into Canadian society. The policy of multiculturalism, established by law in 1971, implies the desire of the authorities and society to "preserve and develop the multinational heritage of Canadians in the economic, social, cultural and political life of Canada"². In the context of this State policy and a number of government programs to expand the study of languages and cultures of Asian countries and monitor their implementation, there is a growing interest in ethnic cultures.

Canada established diplomatic relations with Japan in 1928, opening its own consular office in Tokyo at the same time. Canada's first representatives to Japan were Hugh Kinsliside and Russell Kirkwood, who each authored monographs on the history and culture of Japan. Canadian-Japanese relations were quite friendly until the outbreak of World War II, when the Canadian government, fearing sabotage by Japanese immigrants, began to evict them from the country.

In the 1960s and 1970s, a series of diplomatic, domestic political, and cultural events organized by Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau strengthened Canadian-Japanese relations. In 1972, a bilateral agreement was signed between Canada and Japan on mutual cultural and scientific cooperation, supported by significant funding from both sides. Japan gradually developed a deep interest in Canadian literature and culture. In addition, the growth of the" Japanese factor " in Canada's foreign economic policy in 1960 - 1980 was rapid.

JAPANESE DIASPORA INITIATIVES IN CANADIAN CULTURAL LIFE

The Japanese community in Canada is represented all over the country. In 1947, the National Association of Japanese-Born Canadians was established in Winnipeg, and a little later in Toronto-the Association of Canadian Citizens of Japanese Descent, the largest in comparison with other similar associations in Canada.

In 1947. Tokyo has decided to support emigration from Japan, primarily to the American mainland and to the developed countries of Europe.³ The Government of Japan considered it reasonable to build its domestic and foreign policy taking into account the need to rehabilitate the Japanese people by introducing other peoples to Japanese traditions, culture and history. Representatives of the Japanese intelligentsia encouraged the country's authorities to pay special attention to translating Japanese cultural monuments into other languages, primarily English-

and their broadcasts (through the Tokyo and then Washington radio airwaves) in literary programs, as well as organize broadcasts of Japanese songs, radio performances in English, and later in other languages.

Initiatives of the Japanese intelligentsia have their own history in Canada. Even before the Second World War, Japanese people living in Canada often held "Flower Festivals", organized seasonal treats of national Japanese food throughout Canada, and held other events, thereby introducing even those who might have been unfriendly to their culture.

The year 1977 was declared the Year of Japanese Canadians in Canada in honor of the centenary of the first Japanese people on Canadian soil. At the initiative of the Association of Japanese-Canadian Volunteers, the first "Street Festival of Japanese Dance" was organized in French-speaking Vancouver, which later became an annual event. 2006 marked the 30th anniversary of this event.

The tradition of street festivals of Japanese dance art has its roots in Buddhist and Shinto festivals. According to the Canadian critic, these festivals and other initiatives of Japanese Canadians have consolidated the country's interest in Japanese culture - in tanka and haiku poetry, in the art of making ikebana bouquets, in growing miniature bonsai trees, and in exhibitions of Japanese paper products - washi in Toronto galleries. The" Street Festival of Japanese Culture "is named after The Powell Street Festival organization of the same name, whose mission is to hold exhibitions of fine and applied arts, festive events dedicated to the cultures of Japanese Canadians and Asian-Canadians. This society organizes programs during each calendar year, including the annual cultural events in May "Asian Heritage Month", in conjunction with other organizations in the field of arts. For many years, this organization has been cooperating with such structures as: "Video View of the country's life"," International Dance Festival "held in Vancouver, " Vancouver Japanese Language School", "Pacific Film Library", etc.

Being an example of combining traditions with modern means of expression, the "Street Festival of Japanese Culture" presented a wide professional palette of Japanese musical and performing arts. Over the years, it has been attended by such world-famous performers and artists as the first in Canada group of Japanese taiko drummers "Katari Taiko "(Talking Drums), Noriko Tujiko and Nobukazu Takemura-musicians from Japan, Kei Takei-buto performer from Japan; Denise Fujiwara - dancer and choreographer from Toronto, Yoko Ono is the wife of legendary Beatles band member, composer and singer John Lennon, Mitch Miyagawa with the play "Plum Tree", in which the Canadian reality is conveyed by means of the Noh Theater, and many others.

Representatives of the Japanese diaspora are involved in various areas of Canadian culture. Midi Onodera, Michael Fukushima, Linda Ohama, and Jess Nishihata work in documentaries, creating films about the life of the Japanese diaspora in Canada during different periods of history. The talented photographer and writer Tamio Wakayama writes books about the diaspora in English, illustrating them with his own photo sketches: "The Dream of Wealth "and" Homecoming " (1992).

Canadian architects of Japanese origin are also famous for their work in Canada. The most famous of them is Raymond Moriyama-the embodiment of his projects: the Centers of Science in Ontario and Sudber, the Canadian Embassy complex in Tokyo, the design of the Center for Japanese-Canadian Culture in Toronto. R. Moriyama seeks to introduce his second homeland to the rich heritage of Japanese traditional culture through architecture.

Japanese-Canadian artists are no less successful and well-known (there are more than 200 of them in the recently published list). All of them represent different areas of Canadian fine art. Some went to Japan specifically to learn traditional Japanese techniques.

Newspapers aimed at Japanese Canadians are published weekly in English with financial support from the Government of Canada, for example, The New Canadian has been published as a periodical since 1938 in Vancouver and in Casio, British Columbia, in Toronto. In Canada's largest cities, Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa, there are weekly Japanese - language TV programs. In Canada, a special website is constantly being updated, introducing Canadians to the works of Japanese classical and modern literature, which is run by the Canadian literary critic Charles Stevens ⁴.

The culture of Japanese Canadians is developed in the two official languages of Canada-Canadian English and Canadian French.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE LITERATURE OF THE JAPANESE DIASPORA

One of the main areas of modern literature of Japanese-Canadian writers is folklore motifs and national traditions. Over the past 15 years, a younger generation of prose writers and poets writing in English has grown up, demonstrating continuity in following the traditions of the national classical culture and literature. Among them are Hiromi Goto (born in 1966 in Japan, in 1969 she emigrated with her family to Canada).

Her first novel, A Chorus of Mushrooms (1994), won three awards in 1995 - Best First Book in the Canadian and Caribbean regions, the Writers ' Union of Canada Award for Best First Novel, and shared the first prize for best book in the cultural space of Canada and Japan. Short stories by X. Gotos containing semi-fantastic and folkloric elements have been widely published in literary magazines in Canada. "Vacation at Home" and other short stories were published as a separate book in Canada and England in 2001.

Her second novel, "The Water Child" (2001), won the literary award for the best regional book in Canada (meaning the region of the northern provinces of Canada). In 2002, Hiromi Goto's first and so far only book for children, "Water - Opportunities", was published.

Hiromi Goto is also known in Canada and Japan as a literary critic (between 1994 and 2002, about 20 of her essays on Canadian poetry and multinational literature in Canada were published).

Most popular among Canadian readers is the poet, novelist, playwright and musician Terry Watada (born to a family of Japanese immigrants in 1951, lives in Toronto, teaches at a college) - winner of four literary awards, author of six albums of songs, six plays (including the Toronto-based "The Story of the Mask", 1995), two collections of poetry. The first of them - "A Thousand Houses" (1995) - was nominated for the prestigious Gerald Lampert Memorial Award. In 1997, his book of short stories, The Days of Darum, was published. He is also known as the author of the monthly column of cultural news in the magazine "Voice of a Japanese citizen of another country".

T. Watada's second book of Poems, Ten Thousand Views of the Rain (2001) - The Beautiful Leary-

* Daruma is a Japanese wooden doll, similar to the Russian "Roly Poly", which, according to Japanese beliefs, brings good luck. The red color of the doll resembles the clothes of a Buddhist priest, its shape (without arms and legs) resembles the pose of a meditating person. The image of Daruma reminds Japanese people all over the world that even after a terrible misfortune, you can not give in to grief, but rise again.

a map that reflects the dynamic interaction of the cultures of Japan and Canada, which are characterized by variations on the themes of weather, art, and family. The book is divided into three sections, one of which is about interned Japanese Canadians in British Columbia, their harsh treatment during World War II, and the resilience, condescension, and hope of the Japanese.

In October 2008, in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, the Arts Council of Canada and the Embassy of Japan in Canada announced the names of young writers who have received the Canada-Japan Annual Literary Award for works of fiction with Japanese themes or written in the style of Japanese classical literature that contribute to the deepening of mutual understanding between Canada and Japan. Among them-a woman novelist Darcy Tamayoshi-for the English-language novel "Traditional Dance" ("Odori").

The novel "Odori" by D. Tamayoshi is about the life of the Japanese diaspora, in particular, the Okinawans (i.e., those who were born on the island). Okinawa in Japan) in Alberta, the northern state of Canada. The plot includes fierce battles on the island of. Okinawa during World War II is compared with the events of the 16th century, the" golden age " of Japanese history in the Ryukyu Islands.

The literature of Japanese Canadians-writers has one of the most important themes from the history of the Japanese diaspora in Canada in the XX century. This is the so-called "theme of compensation", which was not easily implemented in the general Canadian culture.

The Japanese Canadians ' Compensation Movement, which emerged in Canada in the early 1980s. This is the result of the changed attitude towards ethnic minorities of "Eastern origin" in Canada over the past 30 years, i.e., in the context of the state policy of multiculturalism adopted in 1971 by P. E. Trudeau.

In 2000, the Japan-Canada National Museum opened a permanent exhibition of archival materials, photographic documents about the lives of Japanese Canadians before, during, and after World War II, as well as documents illustrating the history of the"redress movement". The visiting exhibition of the museum traveled all over the country.

Writers Joy Kagawa (b. 1935 in Vancouver) and Carrie Sakamoto (b.1960 in Japan) grew up in Canada, so the fate of Japanese Canadians ' families during the war and the post-war movement of Japanese Canadians for moral and financial redress are reflected in their prose and poetry.

Carrie Sakamoto is both a writer and an art critic. Two of her novels about the life of Japanese internees in Canada during World War II are known: "Electric Field "(1998) and" One Million one hundred Thousand Hearts " (2003). The first novel was adapted into a film. He works extensively with film studios in Canada and the United States as a literary editor and screenwriter.

Joy Kogawa in 1941, when the Canadian government began interning Japanese people in camps and confiscating their property, found herself with her parents and other family members in one of these camps in southern Alberta, living there until the late 1940s. She later joined the Reparations movement, becoming an activist for Sadankai, an organization that campaigned for compensation from the Canadian Government.

Joy Kogawa's novel "Grandma" (1981) became the Canadian Book of the Year. "Grandma" is a prose work about the struggle of the Japanese diaspora in Canada for their rights against various forms of discrimination that they face.

Japanese Canadians have experienced before the war (racial bias manifested itself in different ways), during the war (most families were interned or expelled from the country) , and the post-war difficult return to their places of residence and work. The novel "Babushka" is a fusion of prose, poetry and nonfiction.

In the early twentieth century, and in the post-war period, Canadians in British Columbia banded together to make their state without "visible minorities" (white man's province) and introduce restrictive hiring sanctions in the leading forestry and fishing industries, directed against immigrants from Asia to avoid competition.

As a result of the extensive work of the Federal Government of Canada at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries, the civic consciousness of Canadians radically changed.

A well-known Japanese Canadian (poet and novelist), who was awarded the Governor General's Award for his novel "Reparation" Roy Miki ⁵ (born in 1942 in the province of Manitoba, during the war his family was interned), also talks about the different fates of Japanese Canadians during World War II and the movement for "reparation" damage to relatives of interned Japanese. His older brother, Art Mickey (who was a longtime leader of the Japanese diaspora in Canada), signed an agreement with Canadian Prime Minister B. Mulroney in 1988 on such compensation. R. Mickey actively promoted the implementation of this agreement throughout his creative and public life.

THE RISE OF "WOMEN'S LITERATURE"

In the last twenty years, Canada has seen a surge in creative activity of Canadian-Japanese women writers.

Chiyoko Mulhairn's book" Japanese Women Writers " includes 58 names and presents their life story in the context of Japanese history, tells about their creative path and contribution to Japanese literature, characterizes major works that are widely and not very well known in the world of foreign literature, paying special attention to those that have been translated into English and French.

The New Canadians, reviewing this book, writes that Japanese women have made a diverse and important contribution to Japanese literature. The book tells which of them are representatives of the main directions of Japanese literature of a particular period, and why these names attracted the attention of translators and specialists in the West. In the bibliography for the literary portrait, not a single publication is forgotten, including about the author. Materials are presented in chronological order. The research introduces not only the works of great literature of realism, premodernism and modernism, but also the works of Japanese women-TV screenwriters, film dramatists, and theater playwrights.

* * *

As a result of the interaction of different ethnic cultures through the common English-speaking and French-speaking culture of Canada, unity is formed in the diversity of both the state languages of Canada, and its integral civil society and common artistic culture.

Changes in modern Canadian culture are rapid, as they depend not only on changes in the Canadian society itself, in the history of Canadian ethnic disputes, but also in the international economic, political and cultural context.

¹ Japanese Canadians of all generations are referred to as "nikkei"by Canadian and Japanese sociologists. The first Japanese to settle in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1877, - Manzo Nagano, a mountain was named after him. After him, in the period 1877-1928, the Japanese began to arrive from the fishing villages of the Japanese islands of Kyushu and Honshu, who formed the first generation of the Japanese diaspora in Canada. The second generation consists of Canadian-born Japanese immigrants. Until the 1940s, first-and second-generation Japanese Canadians were not eligible to vote. The third generation is those born in the 1950s and 1960s to Japanese immigrant families. More than 75% of them have married non-Japanese people; they consider themselves to be Japanese-born Canadians. The young fourth generation of Japanese Canadians was born in the late years of the 20th century, and their ethnic background is mixed. They were born in Canada, like their parents. According to the Canadian State Statistics Service, Japanese Canadians made up the so - called "recognizable minority" - Statistics Canada. February 4, 2008 -http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census06/data/highlights/ethnic/pages/Page.cfm?Lang-E&Geo =PR&Code=48&Table-2&Data-Cou nt&StartRec-1&Sort-3&Display=AH

^{Gauld G.} 2 Multiculturalism: The Real Thing? - In: 20 Years of Multiculturalism: Successes and Failures. Winnipeg, 1992, p. 11.

³ Gaiko: foramu (railway station "International Panorama"). Tokyo, 1990, N 8, p. 23.

⁴ Amason.com: "Must Read Japanese Literature". The site provides a list of the most famous Japanese writers. It begins with Natsume Soseki (the novel "Heart"), then - a writer of the IX century. Sei Senagon (novel "Notes at the head of the bed") (in Russian translated from English by V. Markova, Moscow, 1975), works of prose writers of the middle and second half of the XX century.

^{Roy Miki.} 5 Redress. Japanese Canadians in Negotiation. Raincoast Books, 2004.

Permanent link to this publication: