Page 12 - Forest Grove Years 17 Feb

my father. I was given instruction to stay out of that room.
My friends in the early years came from two small cabins at the end of one of our hay
fields. These cabins were occupied by two Japanese families recently released from in-
ternment camps in the interior of the province. Like many Japanese of that era they
would probably have originated in Vancouver or Steveston and may have been in the
fishing industry. The Uyeyama family consisted of a man and his wife and four daugh-
ters later to be followed by a fifth. They were in age order Asako, Hiroko, Eiko, and Bet-
ty. Sharon the youngest was born about two years after we arrived. The Yada family
had a man and his wife and two sons, Shene and Genwo.
The Yada family left the area about 1948 and purchased a small store in Vancouver. I
did not see any of them again for many years. Not long after I retired in 1999, I had a
call from Genwo inviting me for lunch to the “Fish House” in the West End. I was a little
taken aback given the number of years which had passed but quite happily accepted his
invitation. The purpose of this visit was not to reconnect but rather to share a few mem-
ories and for him to thank me for the generosity to his family provided by my parents at
a time, post war, when the Japanese were not held in high regard. I gather that this had
been on his mind for some time and he felt that it was a necessary if belated gesture.
We never met again.

I was much closer to the Uyeyama Family and to Hiroko who was my age. We spent a
lot of time together both before we started school and after during the three years we
were in residence before our sojourn in Medicine Hat not long after the store burned
down. I have many photos which are included with this text and have a memory written
by Hiroko on the occasion of my mother and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary in 1991.

“Our family was displaced during the Second World War and eventually settled in Forest
Grove, in 1946, with the assistance of Arch and Priscilla who rented the land to us for
our home. This early meeting and friendship was maintained over the years as I
(Hiroko) spent so much time with Robert. My memories are of seemingly "endless" sum-
mer vacations clearing property at Buck Horn Point on Ruth Lake while staying in Man-
ley Roman's cabin across the Lake, days riding "Molly" or following Bob Parkin about as
he tended the animals, raiding the Lodge garden with Arch, Priscilla reading aloud Rich-
ard Kipling - Jungle Stories on the veranda of the Lodge, and eating brown sugar sand-
wiches for an afternoon treat from the Lodge cook. One rather poignant memory comes
to mind of Robert and me sorting through the remains of the store fire. We searched for
intact cans to concoct "King George's Goulash" - Robert’s grandiose label for a messy
stew.”
And from another source with memories of that time the following was written by Sue
Bush. Sue was of Belgian origin and heaven only knows what they were doing in Forest
Grove in the mid 1940s. I believe that her husband Roy was a logger. She comments as
follows:

“We babysat Robert several times, as we lived very close to the lodge on Priscilla and
Archer’s property. Robert and his little Japanese friend Hiroko were frequent visitors to
our place. We learned some very interesting history of Robert’s parents background,
probably the most interesting being that his mother wasn’t married in white, and he
(Robert) was not in the wedding picture because he was not born until the next day!”
I recall quite vividly that Sue Bush, who had training as a midwife, being summoned to