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The Board in 1988: Front Row: Roger Otley (VP), Bob Fairweather (President), Kazuzo Ebihara (VP). Back Row: Tony Buckley (Governor), Paul Summerville (Governor), John Klassen (Secretary), Rosemary Bonderud (Communications), Norm Doole (Treasurer), Willem Kooij (Governor), Maurice Anderson (CCCJ Manager), David Kerr (Program Chair).
For me, putting together this issue to celebrate the CCCJ’s first quarter-century has been what we used to call a “head trip.” That’s because I was here for 15 of those years and a Chamber member for most of them. And doing this required going through about 50 early issues of The Canadian, which brought back a flood of memories. Again and again it was, “Oh, I remember him!” followed by a search of the internet to see where he/she is today.
In turn, that brought back the memory of what it was like to live in Japan as a Canadian back in the days when fax machines seemed futuristic and calling home cost a fortune. We couldn’t imagine having the ability to Google someone’s name… or even being able to get news from home. I spent fruitless weeks trying to pick up CBC News on short-wave radio. On the other hand, we did have 24-hour beer machines close by.
This mission also involved the pleasure of contacting people from the past for the first time in decades. I first met Neil Moody in 1987 at an organizing meeting for the Tokyo Canadian Club. His account of 14 years as the Chamber’s executive director is on P.20. My old friend Robin Sears, Ontario’s former Agent-General, remembers the early ’90s on P.12.
Others from the past I had the pleasure of touching base with included Grant Buchwald, an ex-CCCJ board member who’s now a nightlife impresario in Shanghai. Or the ever-elegant Michelle Brazeau, a key figure in the Chamber’s early years. And John Tak, retired in West Vancouver with wife Heather Mackay, who he met through the Chamber (see P. 23).
Then there were those who were un-findable. It seems none of the gents who founded the CBAJ in 1975 are still with us. No response from board member Norm Doole of the National Bank who went off to South Australia to start a winery. Keith Plowman, project manager for the Canadian embassy, is sadly deceased. Back in the late ’80s, over drinks Keith gave me the inside scoop on that remarkable development.
There are also those who are still here and friends, like two guys I first met at Tsukuba Expo ’85: Christian Howes and Ian McKay.
After a few weeks of this, random Canadians from 20th Century Tokyo scrolled through my head in the shower, on the train and as I tried to get to sleep. So I jotted them down as best I could. In no particular order:
If you’re an ‘old hand’ how many of these names ring a bell?
It is the nature of a community like ours, largely made up of expats, that people come and go. But through their efforts with the CCCJ many have left their mark on our community.
In our year-end issue we will look back over the first 25 years of this century.
PS: feedback welcome at speechwriter.harris@gmail.com
