MAKABE, Tomoko, PICTURE BRIDES: Japanese Women in Canada

Abstract

MAKABE, Tomoko, PICTURE BRIDES: Japanese Women in Canada. North York, Ontario: Multicultural History Society of Ontario, 1995, 180 pp., $24.95 softcover This is an English translation of a book first written in Japanese by a young Japanese woman, Tomoko Makabe. Her research into the life histories of five elderly issei (first generation) immigrant through interviews is a sentimental journey. She sees herself as someone who has followed in their footsteps by immigrating to Canada as a student, becoming one of the shinissei, or new first generation immigrants. Occasionally Japanese stereotypes of Japan persist in some of the general commentary, such as the proclaimed projection of Japanese homogeneity as an essentialized Japanese trait even among those in Canada. The wealth of this book is in the oral narratives of five Japanese immigrant women's lives. As women (born in the Meiji era, 1868-1911) they prove that Meiji did not always conform to the good wife, wise mother ideal. Despite Japanese notions that are totally devoted to the home, these are working women. They worked because they wanted to, and also out of necessity. In this small sample, there are two who divorce. Of those who stay married, one leaves her three children in Japan to free her for work. In another case the couple hide the wife's paid work from the husband's family. Clearly these were who did not necessarily stay tied to marriages, nor to total involvement in the domestic sphere, or with their children. Despite images that Japanese culture has always expected excessive maternal involvement, these examples reveal an alternate reality, encapsulated in the Japanese proverb, ova ga naku to mo, ko wa sodatsu (even though the parent is not there, the child grows up). These life histories reveal much about Japanese customs of the time, the persistence of these in issei communities in Canada, and shifts toward a sense of Japanese Canadian identity. Many picture brides were married in Japan to absent husbands through the Japanese practice of proxy marriage. The phenomenon ofAmerican village among immigrants is presented. This refers to communities initially seen as extensions of communities or regions in Japan. As the women's lives progress there is a gradual lessening of the constraints upon them as individuals expected in Japan. The talk of personal traits they believe result from their early socialization in Japan. …