| biography | Kohei Saito was born around 1880 in Shizuoka prefecture. He came to Canada sometime before his marriage to Natsu Mochizuki in 1914 or 1915. They both arrived on the ship Canada Maru on October 16, 1915 which sailed from Yokohama to Victoria, BC. At that time Kohei was a returning Canadian, and had been in Japan for eight months at the address 130 Yodobashi machi, Toyo tama gun, Tokyo fu.
At first Kohei apprenticed in tailoring at the Tanabe Tailor on the 200 block of Main Street, Vancouver, BC before he opened his first shop at 578 Powell Street, Vancouver, BC from 1919-1927.
The couple were living at a cannery in Eburne where Natsu taught Japanese. They had two children born in Eburne; Tatsue on June 2, 1916 and Fumiko on December 27, 1917. Later Naotoshi and Kimiko were born behind the Tailor shop at 578 Powell in 1919 and 1922; respectively by a midwife.
The Saito family lived in the back of the tailor shop. Around 1927, the family moved the shop to Hastings Street, where they lived until they eventually moved again to 378 Heatley Avenue, Vancouver, BC where they lived and worked from about 1930 to 1932. They then packed up house and shop and moved into 397 Powell Street from 1933 to 1940; taking the business over from Mr Takata who returned to Japan in 1932. They named the shop K Saito Tailors. Here Mrs Saito did alterations for the Matsumiya and Nose Men's Wear shop. The building at 397 Powell was owned by a Mr Parker who had apple orchards in North Vancouver and would bring a box of fresh apples for the Saitos.
At the same time, Kohei opened the Quick Cleaners drycleaning and alteration shop at 818 Smythe Street, Vancouver, BC in 1931. The drycleaners was dismantled in 1942. The Saito's never lived behind the Quick Cleaners but did collectively work there after Kohei's death in Japan on January 21, 1937.
In 1940, the family bought a house on the 200 block on East Fifth Avenue (and Main Street), Vancouver, BC and enjoyed a short time there before the house became entrusted to the Custodian. The Tailor shop on Powell Street continued to be run by the Miyashima family who were relatives.
All the Saito children attended the Powell Street United Church Kindergarten, Strathcona School and the Japanese Language school. As children they played in the American Can paved area with bikes, roller skates, and apple box cars. Kimiko and Fumiko attended the Grandview High School of Commerce and took dressmaking courses from Mrs Seto, after they graduated, so they could help in the family business. Mr and Mrs Saito both encouraged education with their children. All the girls helped out in both stores until the Internment, and in Tatsue's case until her engagement.
The Saitos were the second from the last to be forcibly removed to Slocan by train, arriving in October of 1942. Kimiko left behind her education, experiences and belongings. Being one of the coldest winters in BC, their tents collapsed from all the snow, the first week there. Inspired to live in a house, they took the last train to Lemon Creek, sharing quarters with eight women and a total of four families. In Lemon Creek, Kimiko worked as a clerk in the general store and enjoyed the social aspect of meeting people in town.
Fumiko met her husband, Zenkei Ezaki in Lemon Creek and married him in June, 1943. Later they moved to Vernon, BC, where they worked picking apples and she moonlighting as a seamstress. They lived frugally in a house on the farm property. As Fumiko's husband was a Japanese National and a Buddhist Priest, he was repatriated to Japan in 1946. She was able to join him about three years later, after moving to Toronto with the Saito family.
Naotoshi at age twenty-three, a member of the Mass Evacuation Group; protesting the split up of families at the outbreak of the Internment, was arrested and spent two years in Petawawa; the prisoner of war camp in Ontario. The Saito family was not allowed to visit Naotoshi. After two years he got a job at Canada Packers in Summerville, Ontario.
Tatsue went to Vernon, BC with her husband Kiyoshi Hori and then joined the family in Toronto, eventually starting a successful dry cleaning business.
Kimiko got a job as a domestic around Riverside Drive in Toronto and the employers let her and her mother live in the basement. Natsu passed away in Toronto on March 14, 1958. |