| scope and content | The fonds consists of nine separate series, with pertinent subseries, including information such as Haruko Kobayakawa's personal records, household financial records, correspondence, collection of scrapbooks, diaries and photographic collection of her life in Canada and in Japan. |
| biography | Mrs. Haruko Ivy Kobayakawa (nee Yokota) was born at Takeni-mura Hiroshima, Japan, March 20, 1902.
In 1921, Haruko traveled to Canada to marry Masao Kobayakawa who was born in Cumberland BC March 10, 1898. The couple resided at Courtenay, BC on a farm that Masao owned.
After five years the Kobayakawa's moved to Cumberland, where Haruko became the first teacher at a Japanese language school. They stayed in Cumberland until 1936.
In April 1940, Haruko returned to Japan with Masao's parents, in order for her to take care of them. On her way to Japan, Haruko went via Seattle to San Francisco and on to Hawaii, staying for a month with her sister who lived there. Haruko, her sister and in-laws, then arrived in Japan, just before the war with Japan broke out.
Living in Japan, and not being able to return to Canada because of the war, Haruko got a job as a sewing instructor in a prefectural office in Hyogo. She taught three months of pattern making courses to young women. After 2.5 years, she left for Itami, where she started a business called "Kobayakawa's Dressmaking School".
Because of the wartime activities however, Itami began to suffer from bombings, so unaware of the events that were about to occur, she moved to Hiroshima City to visit her in-laws. Haruko luckily left Hiroshima City to go to the country, a day before the atomic bomb struck.
After the war in 1947, Haruko was allowed to start corresponding with her husband again, who was sent to Schreiber camp. During the war, the Kobayakawa's lost a ten acre farm, 175 acres of a mountain, a home and car.
Haruko soon joined her husband in Toronto in 1948, soon after the political climate in Canada shifted.
In Toronto, Haruko became employed as a Japanese teacher and then as a designer for a fur company for 20 years, with her husband working as a mechanic fixing cars.
The Kobayakawa's lived in Toronto until 1969 where she became involved in many organizations, including the JCCA and a gardener's club.
After Masao passed away in 1969, Haruko moved to Vancouver, where she became very active at Tonari Gumi as a Board Director and on the JCCA Redress Committee.
Some of Haruko's hobbies included writing tanka and haiku of which many of her poems were published in Japan, collecting newsclippings, community work, writing in her diary, playing gateball and various other activities.
Haruko Kobayakawa passed away in December, 1989. |