Written by Takeshi Fukushima
The Takeda family arrived in Farnham, Quebec, on September 29th, 1946. The Takedas travelled to Farnham from the Tashme internment camp and, after a six-month stint in Transcona, Winnipeg, while the Farnham facilities may have been being set up, were moved into a house which they shared with another family. Although the Takedas had originally signed up to move to Japan after the closure of the internment camps, the birth of their daughter Tamiko and the precarious state of post-war Japan were enough to convince them to move East and remain in Canada. The family did not have anywhere else to go postwar but the Farnham Hostel, as they did not know anyone else on the East Coast.
At the Farnham Hostel, the Takedas remember eating at long tables with the other residents in the repurposed military barracks which served as the hostel’s mess hall. While some of those other residents were fellow Japanese-Canadians, the Takedas’ time at Farnham also overlapped with that of German prisoners-of-war at this site. The men and older children of the Takeda family, however, were mostly absent from Farnham — instead, they spent their time away looking for work. They got jobs at St Lawrence Rubber Co. Ltd., at Farnham Stamping, and in tobacco factories. The children’s father, Torao Takeda, also got a job as a plumber from the federal Department of Labour, for which he earned $20 per month, along with room and board for his family.
For the Takeda children, being seven siblings in one small house, life was mostly spent outdoors — rain or shine. Since their house was right next to a field, other children in the area often wanted to come over to play games. While many of these children were Japanese, there were also English and French children as well. The younger Takeda children went to school at Farnham Intermediate, while the older children attended Cowansville High.
Christmases in Farnham were a time of many different traditions. Every year, the whole Takeda family would head into the woods to cut down a Christmas tree for their home. The families in the Farnham area would also visit each other, and the parents had parties where they would sit around tables and sing Japanese songs. The older Japanese children used to have dance parties with rock-and-roll music, and their younger siblings would sneak downstairs to catch a peek at the excitement. This would also be the time of year for new dresses: Midori would make new Christmas dresses for the children every year. For some of the Takeda children, this was the only time that they received new clothing, and not hand-me-downs. When New Years rolled around, their grandmother would cook octopus for the family — but not before chasing her terrified grandchildren around the house with it.
In fact, some of the Takedas’ clearest memories of life at the Farnham Hostel involved food. The family recalls Japanese mothers making senbei for local events, as well as picnics that they had across the river with other families. Once a month, the Miyamotos would take grocery orders from the Japanese families in Farnham and return with cans of abalone and bags of rice in their station wagon. Bottles of milk would be delivered by wagon, along with loaves of bread and blocks of ice. The family would pick wild fiddleheads, beans, and berries. The children’s mother, Dai, would make fried potatoes, bacon and rice, and chopped cabbage and onions with tiny cubed pieces of spam mixed in — and although she did not read much English, she learned many Canadian dishes by watching The Galloping Gourmet on television. Whenever Torao would go into Montreal, he would go to Chinatown and bring home many different desserts to his family. Of course, the children also knew that their father liked to hide digestive biscuits and other candies around the house, and to look for them once he got home from his trips to the city.
Of course, not all their memories of the Farnham Hostel were pleasant ones. The Takeda children had racist slurs hurled at them from some of the French children in the area; and the entire family watched as more and more of their Japanese neighbours slowly left Farnham for better opportunities in Montreal, Toronto, and elsewhere in Canada. Despite this, the Takeda family stayed in Farnham even after the Hostel closed down, and many of the Takeda children remain there to this day.