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Faculty of Graduate Studies

Miwa Sugino

  • BA (University of Victoria, 2016)

Notice of the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Arts

Topic

Belonging, Continuity, and Community Connection in Victoria’s Japanese Canadian Community: A Reflective Thematic Analysis of VNCS Newsletters

School of Child and Youth Care

Date & location

  • Wednesday, August 26, 2026

  • 9:00 A.M.

  • Virtual Defence

Reviewers

Supervisory Committee

  • Dr. Shemine Gulamhusein, School of Child and Youth Care, University of Victoria (Supervisor)

  • Dr. Doris Kakuru, School of Child and Youth Care, UVic (Member) 

External Examiner

  • Dr. Kristy Dellebuur O’Connor, Child and Youth Care, Douglas College 

Chair of Oral Examination

  • Dr. Matt James, Department of Political Science, UVic

     

Abstract

Despite the existence of extensive scholarship on Japanese Canadian wartime dispossession, internment, dispersal, redress, and intergenerational effects, few studies have examined how everyday organizational texts represent belonging, identity, community connection, and changing priorities within a specific local community context. Anti-racism scholarship often treats Asian Canadians as a broad category, which can obscure the historically and culturally specific experiences of Japanese Canadian communities. This qualitative study analyzed newsletters published by the Victoria Nikkei Cultural Society in 2013, 2014, 2023, and 2024. Using reflexive thematic analysis guided by Critical Race Theory and Social Trauma Theory, the study examined cultural continuity, community building, and changing community priorities over time. 

The findings indicate that belonging and continuity are sustained through recurring cultural participation, community storytelling, volunteer labour, and shared recognition, while also being shaped by organizational and material conditions such as funding, space, governance, and formalization. The newsletters further portray community storytelling as public memory work through which wartime injustice is negotiated, taking shape in uneven naming, moral languages of endurance, and intergenerational patterns of expression and restraint. The analysis also identifies shifts over time toward formalized governance, structured programming, and antiracism initiatives, including training and relational solidarity work. These developments expand organizational capacity while also introducing tensions related to access, participation, and decision-making. These findings suggest that anti-racism and community practice must attend to historically-grounded memory, culturally specific forms of belonging, and everyday organizational life to support the continuity of the Japanese Canadian community in Victoria.

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