The Tashme Project:
The Living Archives
ILLUSTRATED BY KAORI IZUMIYA, SANDRA TATSUKO KADOWAKI, MATT MIWA, CINDY MOCHIZUKI + PJ MURASHIGE
ADAPTED BY JULIE TAMIKO MANNING
ADAPTED BY JULIE TAMIKO MANNING
E-book layout by Sorcha Gibson
Introduction
In 2009, when Matt Miwa and I began thinking about how we wanted to acknowledge and remember the lives of our elders, we had no idea what form it was going to take. After hundreds of hours of interviews with many members of our community- Nisei, Sansei and Yonsei- we found ourselves taken with the idea that the wartime generation should tell their experiences in their own voices instead of us trying to re-write them. With both of us being from a theatre background, we decided to turn our conversations with them into a one-act verbatim play, where we could keep the playful nature and layered spirit of their words and language. Matt and I took on the challenge of embodying our elders to tell the story of the Japanese Canadian wartime experience on stage.
The play traced the oral histories of 20 Nisei who were at Tashme internment camp as children, but who had at the time of creation, become our community's elders. Stories of internment had rarely been discussed in our families and in the community, and younger generations of Japanese Canadians remained largely ignorant of their elders' personal experience. It was because of this silence, and the sense of shame that encompassed it, that we embarked upon this journey to ask for, receive and retell these amazing and profound histories. It was our honour to hold these stories in trust and to infuse them with the spirit and personalities of their original tellers, many of whom have now passed away.
However, they will live on in there-telling of these stories, which is why I am so proud of this new work which retells their stories in a different and hopefully,more accessible way. I have wanted to see The Tashme Project: The LivingArchives adapted into a graphic novel for many years, and to finallywitness the amazing work that these 5 artists have put into this project overthe last year, I am moved to tears. This online graphic novel is a firstiteration the graphic novel, with the final goal being an expansion to includethe other stories in the play, as well as a publication of a hard copy book.
As its creators, we remain deeply committed to this project and proliferating the stories it contains, not only for their historical value, but because each story offers deep and useful lessons in perseverance, humility, and powerful compassion. Thank you to the artists who took on these stories with love and care, to our elders for sharing your lives, to our ancestors who fought to give us a better life than they had, and to our families for teaching us about resilience, perseverance and kindness. This is how you build a community. A little bit at a time.
Tashme Productions gratefully acknowledges support from the Community Fund of the Japanese Canadian Legacies Society.
- Julie Tamiko Manning
Meet the artists
Cindy Mochizuki
Artist
Cindy Mochizuki creates multi-media installation, animation, drawing, audio fiction, performance, public artworks, films and community-engaged projects. She has exhibited her work in Canada, US, Australia, and Japan. Recent exhibitions include the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, The ACT Gallery, Art Gallery at Evergreen, Kamloops Art Gallery, Prince Takamado Gallery, and Nanaimo Art Gallery. She has created illustration and animation design for theatre companies including the Arts Club Theatre, Theatre Calgary, Rumble Theatre, Theatre Replacement, and Little Onion Puppet. She has received Vancouver's Mayor’s Arts Award in New Media and Film (2015) and the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts VIVA Award (2020).
Kaori Izumiya
Artist
Kaori Izumiya is a Japanese-born and raised artist based in Montreal, Quebec. Trained in oil painting at Tokyo University of the Arts, she works across disciplines as a painter, muralist, and illustrator. Her work has been presented in exhibitions across Japan, New Zealand, and Canada. Bridging the personal and the collective, her practice often reflects on cultural heritage, nature, and interconnectedness.
Kaori has also worked as a background artist on major Japanese animated films and with Montreal-based game studios. She is actively engaged in socially oriented collaborations, including projects addressing gender-related issues. Since 2022, inspired by Montreal’s street art culture, she has developed her practice as a muralist in Montreal, working with local communities as well as on international projects, including in Morocco.She is also involved in Asian cultural initiatives, including participation in Festival Accès Asie in 2023.
Kaori has also worked as a background artist on major Japanese animated films and with Montreal-based game studios. She is actively engaged in socially oriented collaborations, including projects addressing gender-related issues. Since 2022, inspired by Montreal’s street art culture, she has developed her practice as a muralist in Montreal, working with local communities as well as on international projects, including in Morocco.She is also involved in Asian cultural initiatives, including participation in Festival Accès Asie in 2023.
Sandra Tatsuko Kadowaki
Artist
Sandra Tatsuko Kadowaki is a sansei Montrealer who rediscovered her love of creating art in 2018, when she took her first watercolour course and since then, she has been obsessively experimenting with what has become her favourite medium. She also loves working in ink, graphite, coloured pencil and gouache. Weekends are often spent painting and drawing in her home studio cubicle, or sketching outdoors in a good shady spot. Sandra also enjoys printmaking and needle felting, and used to make and sell her own Japanese inspired jewellery and greeting cards.
Artist statement:
This rediscovery of my creative self has been a challenge, but I now feel ready to share parts of myself in my art that my quivering voice has always been too shaky to express. I will continue to work on pieces of and for my family; the internment experiences of both my parents, and their steadfast dedication to our family unit has helped root me, not only geographically, but also in my "sentiment d’appartenance” or my sense of belonging wherever I find myself.
Artist statement:
This rediscovery of my creative self has been a challenge, but I now feel ready to share parts of myself in my art that my quivering voice has always been too shaky to express. I will continue to work on pieces of and for my family; the internment experiences of both my parents, and their steadfast dedication to our family unit has helped root me, not only geographically, but also in my "sentiment d’appartenance” or my sense of belonging wherever I find myself.
PJ Murashige
Artist
PJ Murashige is an artist living and working on the stolen lands of the Tsawwassen First Nation in British Columbia. Born in Japan and raised in Southern California, Influenced by his Japanese grandparents, Murashige’s work often follows the haiga format, combining image and text through a minimalist and emotionally resonant lens. Stark, pared-down compositions invite the viewer to slow down and actively participate in the story being told. For this project, Murashige worked with his ba-chan’s brush and ink stone, grounding the work in lineage, memory, and continuity. His first graphic novel Tower25 is a graphic novel memoir about homelessness, addiction, and recovery.
Matt Miwa
Artist, Tashme Productions Co-Artistic Producer
Matt Miwa is only a recent illustrator, submitting daily to his pencil and pen (and consistent erasures) throughout the pandemic. Finding peace and joy in this process, Matt now dedicates his art practice to illustration, while still dabbling in installation work. Most recently, Matt joined forces with curator Machiko Townson and shodo artist Yukari Snyder to form the art collective "Asobu." Their recent show "Bonfire" was on display at Scrim's Florist in Ottawa in August 2025 and explored the theme of Obon, as it is celebrated in Canada, and interpreted by Japanese Canadian culture.
Julie Tamiko Manning
Tashme Productions Co-Artistic Producer
Julie Tamiko Manning is an award-winning actor and theatre creator from Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She is co-Artistic Producer of Tashme Productions with Ottawa artist Matt Miwa. Their documentary play, The Tashme Project: The Living Archives, toured throughout Canada, was published in the anthology Scripting (Im)migration and was awarded Outstanding New Script by the Montreal English Theatre Awards (METAs).
Her most recent play,Mizushōbai- The Water Trade, about Kiyoko Tanaka Goto, featured an all-female Japanese Canadian cast for its world premiere in Montreal. The play was shortlisted for the 2024 Carol Bolt Award (Playwrights’ Guild of Canada) as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation Playwriting Award and was nominated for Outstanding New Text (META). She is currently writing a new play about her grandfather’s life as a poet, called 孤村 Lonely Village.
Julie is a proud sansei, mixed-race Japanese Canadian,and her desire to heal community through art is viscerally present in whatever project she is involved in. She is a member of the Quebec Chapter of the NAJC as well as Montreal’s newest taiko group, Shima no Taiko.
Her most recent play,Mizushōbai- The Water Trade, about Kiyoko Tanaka Goto, featured an all-female Japanese Canadian cast for its world premiere in Montreal. The play was shortlisted for the 2024 Carol Bolt Award (Playwrights’ Guild of Canada) as well as the Quebec Writers’ Federation Playwriting Award and was nominated for Outstanding New Text (META). She is currently writing a new play about her grandfather’s life as a poet, called 孤村 Lonely Village.
Julie is a proud sansei, mixed-race Japanese Canadian,and her desire to heal community through art is viscerally present in whatever project she is involved in. She is a member of the Quebec Chapter of the NAJC as well as Montreal’s newest taiko group, Shima no Taiko.