Gambatte: Generations of Perseverance and Politics, a Memoir - Hardcover

Tsubouchi, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1770411313 ISBN 13: 9781770411319

Publisher: ECW Press, 2013

Synopsis

"Gambatte" means do your best and never give up, and that spirit is at the heart of David Tsubouchi's life story. This memoir of the former Ontario cabinet minister begins as his family strives for acceptance amid the imprisonment of Canadians of Japanese descent and the confiscation of their property, possessions, and businesses by the Mackenzie King Liberal government in 1941. Despite growing up on the outside looking in, Tsubouchi never felt disadvantaged because he had a good family and was taught to persevere. Gambatte outlines his unusual career path from actor to dedicated law school student/lumber yard worker to politician. Tsubouchi was the first person of Japanese descent elected in Canada as a municipal politician and, as an MPP, to serve as a cabinet minister. His story also reveals an insider's perspective of Mike Harris's "Common Sense Revolution."

About this title

About the Author

David Tsubouchi is a partner in the law firm Fogler, Rubinoff LLP; a member of the board of governors for Seneca College; and an honorary consul in Toronto for the Mongolian People's Republic. He is a former member of provincial parliament for Markham and has held several cabinet posts in the Ontario legislature, including the chair of management board and the minister of culture. He lives in Toronto.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Gambatte

Generations of Perseverance and Politics

By David Tsubouchi

ECW PRESS

Copyright © 2013 David Tsubouchi
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-77041-131-9

CHAPTER 1

The Tsubouchi Clan

My grandfather Hyakuzo Tsubouchi immigrated to Canada shortly after the turn of the last century. I remember my grandfather as large for a Japanese man of that time. He was about five feet, nine inches tall. He lived in Duncan, B.C., on Vancouver Island and worked in the bush as a lumberjack. My grandmother Ume Hisatsugu came to Canada just after the First World War. She added to the family income by cleaning the homes of wealthy white people. My grandparents Tsubouchi raised six children — my aunts Chizu, Nobu and Setsuko and my uncles Kenji and Eiji, and my dad, Kiyoshi. In the Tsubouchi household, my grandmother obviously had no difficulty producing children. She once jokingly said to me that she would jump onto the table, have the baby, jump off and get back to work.

My father's middle name was Thomas. It was an acknowledgement by my grandparents that he was a Canadian. He was born on November 20, 1921. As in most large families, everyone had responsibilities. It was a humble household and everybody was expected to pull his or her weight.

My dad was the oldest male child and with that position carried more responsibility. Even as a boy, my dad reigned over his sisters. His brothers were much younger than the older sisters. In Japanese families the eldest son is held in great esteem; he will be the heir. This is significant even to a poor family. In Japan when a family had no male child, the family would arrange for a male from another family to be adopted so that the family name would continue. My aunts told me that when they were older, they all jumped when my father came home from work, and that he was an authority figure they obeyed. My Aunt Pat (Chizu) used to say, "Kiyoshi will be home soon — is the rice on?" That used to be the watchword. My father, on the other hand, said it was his three sisters who used to tell him what to do. As with most families, the truth is somewhere in between.

My father always took his responsibilities as the oldest son seriously and at an early age, during the Depression, tried to earn money to help out the family. My dad did any chore that he could get paid for. At the age of 11, he decided that the way to make money was to become a caddy at the local golf club.

Every morning he would put on his painter's hat (he did not own a real golf cap), walk down to the golf club and line up with the other boys hoping to be chosen as a caddy. Every night he would return home disappointed.

Unfortunately my dad had two strikes against him. He was the smallest boy and he didn't look as if he could even carry a golf bag. The second strike was that he was Japanese, and in British Columbia at that time, there was considerable prejudice against both the Japanese and Chinese, who were seen as cheap labourers taking jobs away from "real" Canadians.

If there was one trait that my father had, it was persistence. I think this hard- headedness is a trait that all of his children inherited. He had a determination to succeed no matter how long it took or how many times he was rejected. The next morning he would return again.

My father told me that this had gone on for almost the entire golf season.

It was difficult for my father because he had to endure rejection and bullying and name-calling from the older boys, but the hope that he might get a job and be paid five cents to caddy, an enormous amount of money to my father, kept him coming back.

Some of his enthusiasm had been ero

Edition details

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1770411313
• ISBN 13: 9781770411319
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 250