| biography | Born to Riwo and Tsurikichi Fujikawa in 1914 on their berry farm in Silverdale, BC, Koazi was the fifth of nine children. He went to school in Silverdale for the first six grades, Mission Central School for grade seven and then Silverhill School for grade eight. After grade eight, Koazi stayed at home to work on the farm.
In 1933 Koazi began to haul cedar shingle bolts and pulp wood to the mill in Ruskin with the truck he bought from David Shugge (Stena Edberg's uncle). In those early days, Koazi loved to hunt, fish, play baseball in Donatelli's field in Silverdale and tease his younger sisters and nieces.
When the war broke out in 1939, Koazi went to Vancouver to sign up. It was only then, when he wasn't accepted into the service, that Koazi realized that he was "different" from other Canadians.
Koazi then moved to Ocean Falls and worked in the mills until 1942 when the proclamation of the Enemy Aliens Act was put into effect. As a Japanese-Canadian, evicted from the coast, he was sent to St Thomas to work on a farm. He then moved to Fort William with his brother Tom and then on to Toronto.
When the Canadian army created the Canadian Intelligence Corps in 1945, a Japanese-Canadian group of interpreters, Koazi enlisted. The army sent him to Vancouver to attend the Japanese language school but he was not able to pick up the language. He wound up working in the kitchen.
In November after his discharge in April 1946, Koazi was given permission to return to Mission City as a permanent resident. He went to cooking school in Vancouver and took on a series of related jobs, including one as the camp cook at Stave Lake, NWT. This was probably one of the best jobs Koazi ever had. He would prepare breakfast and set out the food for the workers to make their lunches. After cleaning up he had most of day to himself to sit on the dock and fish until it was time to cook dinner.
Koazi lived in Whitehorse from 1953 to 1964 where his sister Violet lived and where sister Doris and brother Tom later followed. During that time Koazi worked as a civilian carpenter renovating old army buildings that were used as barracks for the Alaska Highway workers. His work took him to Destruction Bay and north along Kluane Lake, a fisherman's haven.
Doris and Vi moved to Prince George and Koazi joined them in 1964. He worked as a carpenter and helped to build pulp mills in Prince George and Quesnel, and Kitimat. He also worked as a saw filer which is where he probably picked up his love for keeping a sharp edge.
Of course, fishing and hunting continued to be favourite pastimes. In 1970, Koazi joined his sister Chiyo on a trip to Japan where they went to Expo '70 and visited sister Kimi's family.
Koazi retired in 1979 and moved back to Mission, BC where sister Vi had also retired. He still enjoyed taking trips up north to fish and hunt. He also made several trips back east to visit his nieces Jeannine, Donnie and Addie and their families during the 1980s. Throughout the years, Koazi still kept in touch with friends from the war days.
Starting in 1989 he worked as a volunteer on the "Rites of Passage" project with the Mission Community Archives. Rites of Passage was an exhibit to commemorate the 50 year anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian evacuation. For three years he contributed to research on the Japanese-Canadian community in Mission. He also went to Enderby to pick up lumber that nephew Rae Fujikawa donated to build the shoji screens for the display.
Koazi took up many other retirement activities, including gardening. He supplied neighbourhood, friends and family with New Zealand spinach, Japanese beans and cucumbers and other assorted produce. Along with food, he also dispensed his valuable seeds and gardening advice. Koazi's beans were as legendary as his smoked or canned salmon.
He always enjoyed baseball, keeping up on current events and watching education or travel shows on television in between after dinner naps. Koazi was fond of discussing politics and sharing garden tools with neighbours. Koazi was a regular at Stena's Saturday evening card games. On Sunday mornings he could usually be found rummaging through the Abbotsford flea market.
Although Koazi began to slow down in the last couple of years, he continued to keep an interest in his garden, his friends and his family. Even while in the hospital over the last few weeks, Koazi enjoyed the company of people and looked forward to harvesting his beans. When he learned that he had cancer, he was very calm. He simply said, "This is my destiny," and made the best of his remaining time with us. Koazi passed away on July 17, 2001.
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