Guest post written by author Danielle R. Graham
Danielle R. Graham is a psychotherapist in private practice and a best-selling author of both sweet and edgy young adult and new adult novels for HarperCollins. All We Left Behind is her first historical novel. She splits time between Vancouver and Mayne Island, Canada, with her husband. You can find Danielle on Twitter and at her website.
Whether rooted in love, loss, or injustice, if an experience touched my heart or choked me up, I’ll probably write about it. This has never been truer than for my debut historical novel, All We Left Behind. Set against the backdrop of the internment of Japanese Canadians from Mayne Island, British Columbia, the seed of emotion for this WWII story of love, loss and injustice sprung straight from my true life family history.
I grew up in Steveston British Columbia, which was historically a Japanese-Canadian fishing village. When I was about five years old I asked my Japanese-Canadian neighbour why he didn’t like blueberries. He said blueberries reminded him of when he lived in the interior of BC as a boy. For the record, I was the kind of kid who asked why a lot — annoyingly a lot. So, of course, I asked my neighbour why he didn’t want to be reminded of living in the interior, why the Canadian Government confiscated his family’s house and boat, why they were forced to live in an internment camp, and why they didn’t come back right after the war. Then I asked why he wasn’t angry about the unfairness. My neighbour didn’t answer the last question. His expression transitioned into sadness as he told me he didn’t want to talk about it anymore.
All of my Japanese Canadian friends and classmates in Steveston had similar family histories linked to the internment in British Columbia during WWII. Some had grandparents who had lived in the government camps in BC, some had parents who grew up in Alberta and only came back to Steveston well after the war, some had family members deported to Japan, and all had relatives whose property, belongings, university degrees and careers were stolen for no other reason than their Japanese ancestry.
My nephews are fourth-generation Japanese Canadians. Their ninety-five year old great-grandfather was born in Canada to Japanese parents and he was interned in Taylor Lake, BC during the war. Like Chidori in the novel and my neighbour growing up, Great-Grandpa and his family were forced to evacuate the BC coast and relocate. His family fishing boat and home, which still stands not far from where my nephews live now, were taken and sold at auction by the Canadian Government for a fraction of the value.
On the other side of the family, my nephews’ great-grandfather was a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force during WWII. Like Hayden in the novel, my grandfather flew a spitfire. He was a Flight Officer in RCAF 412 Squadron and was shot down over the English Channel during the Battle of Dieppe. Fortunately, after parachuting out my grandfather was rescued from the water by a Dutch merchant ship. There happened to be a news crew on board, so the vintage reel footage of the plane being shot down and my grandfather’s rescue from the water were recorded and can be viewed on my website if you’d like to see it. Records of my grandfather’s pilot logs, archived photos of my nephews’ great-grandfather interned in Taylor Lake, along with other personal war accounts from POW journals, museum collections, Government of Canada documents, and archives all became the basis for the historical information in All We Left Behind.
I chose the setting of Mayne Island BC, partly because we have a family cottage there and much of the island’s rich history can still be experienced as you walk through the village. I also wanted to honour the Japanese-Canadian community who resided on Mayne Island before WWII. Because the restrictions on Japanese Canadians unjustly remained in place for four years after the war ended, many families did not come back to the west coast and none of the families returned to Mayne Island after the internment. Some of the original Japanese-Canadian owned homes that were auctioned off and most of the historical buildings mentioned in the novel still stand as a sad reminder of those events on Mayne Island and the loss of that thriving community.
Seventy years have passed since the war officially ended for the Japanese Canadians. But for my nephews, whose great-grandfather on one side of the family was interned in Taylor Lake and great-grandfather on the other side of the family nearly died in the war, and for all future generations, I hope they continue to learn and remember the history so it will never be repeated. I hope you too will enjoy reading about this little known part of WWII history. Thank you for allowing me to share a little about why the story behind All We Left Behind is so meaningful to my family, my community and me.
