THE TREE TRUNK CAN BE MY PILLOW
A Biography of an Outstanding Japanese Canadian
By TADASHI JACK KAGETSU
2017
9781550586114 (paperback)
9781550586121 (PDF)
9781550586138 (EPUB)
252 pages
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
“This book is a son’s tribute to his father, delivered to readers after the death of both. As Jack Kagetsu laboured for a decade on his manuscript, travelling to archives, combing newspaper articles, and organizing his findings as well as his memories into writing, he must have felt that he was discovering parts of himself as well as his father. It is a very personal history. The book also has communal resonance for Japanese Canadians. It reflects reverence for elders and speaks to the accomplishments and losses of a generation of immigrant founders, the Issei. In the case of Eikichi Kagetsu both accomplishment and loss were of staggering proportions; perhaps no one else built so much, only to see it stolen in the mid-twentieth century odyssey of Japanese Canadians.”
Dr. Jordan Stanger-Ross, Department of History, University of Victoria
Subjects: Eikichi Kagetsu, Japanese Canadian, internment, person history, immigrant, British Columbia
Tadashi Jack Kagetsu (1931-2006) was the youngest son of the “outstanding Japanese Canadian” and prominent Nikkei timber industrialist Eikichi Kagetsu. He received hs PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Toronto in 1957. He went on to an accomplished career in the United States with the Union Carbide Corporation, where he received two patents for technical innovation. He was also a chess master—as a university student, he defeated a Russian grandmaster as well as a US and former world champion.
INTRODUCTION
Chapter 1 | HARD LIFE OF A FIRST BORN
Chapter 2 | GETTING STARTED IN A NEW LAND
Chapter 3 | EARLY LOGGING VENTURES
Chapter 4 | A LARGE-SCALE LOGGING OPERATION
Chapter 5 | LIFE IN A LOGGING CAMP
Chapter 6 | AN UNWANTED PARTNERSHIP
Chapter 7 | PERSONAL LIFE
Chapter 8 | MAINTAINING JAPANESE TRADITIONS
Chapter 9 | EDUCATION IS A TOP PRIORITY
Chapter 10 | A MAN OF FAITH IN ACTION
Chapter 11 | THE CANADIAN JAPANESE ASSOCIATION IN ACTION
Chapter 12 | OTHER ACTIVITIES IN THE COMMUNITY
Chapter 13 | PARTICIPATION IN MEMORABLE EVENTS
Chapter 14 | THE VIMY PILGRIMAGE AND BERLIN OLYMPICS
Chapter 15 | A GREAT HONOUR IS SAVOURED
Chapter 16 | PEARL HARBOR AND ITS AFTERMATH
Chapter 17 | OUR LIVES ARE CHANGED FOREVER
Chapter 18 | MEAGRE COMPENSATION FOR LIQUIDATED ASSETS
Chapter 19 | STARTING A NEW LIFE IN THE EAST
Chapter 20 | THE ELDER STATESMAN IS STILL ACTIVE
Chapter 21 | LIFE’S SUNSET
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Appendix I | LIST OF FANNY BAY RESIDENTS (1942)
Appendix II | CANADIAN JAPANESE ASSOCIATION
Appendix III | SPEECH BY EIKICHI KAGETSU, REPRESENTATIVE FROM CANADA
Appendix IV | SECURITY REPORT ON EIKICHI KAGETSU
Appendix V | MACINNIS SPEECH ON EIKICHI KAGETSU CASE
Appendix VI | EIKICHI KAGETSU DESCENDANCY CHART
The Tree Trunk Can Be My Pillow was part of the recent 75th Anniversary Book Launch at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.
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