Isomura Family

Tanekichi Isomura [1891– 1950]

Louise (Shige) Isomura (nee Tsuchiya) [1908 – 1988] 

Tanekichi Isomura was born on November 15, 1891, in Aichi-ken, Japan, to Gentaro and Tsune (nee Takahashi). He was a fish buyer.

Louise Isomura (nee Tsuchiya) was born on February 3, 1908, in North Vancouver, BC, to Hajime and Tsugi (nee Asahina). She went to King Edward High School and left in Grade 10, took nurses’ training, then went back to finish Grade 11. After three years of nurses’ training, she found a nursing school that would accept Asians. Vancouver General would not accept her because they didn’t know how the public would react. After applying to several places, a church-sponsored school in Lamont, Alberta, admitted her. There was great discrimination against people from Asia wanting to go into medical professions. 

Louise returned to BC in 1934, but she could not register as a Registered Nurse. She stayed in Vancouver and was able to work among the Japanese community as a practical nurse. She was the first Japanese woman from Vancouver to graduate as a nurse. She worked at Vancouver General and St. Vincents, then worked for a doctor’s office for seven years before the start of the Second World War. 

Kenneth Isomura, age 4, singing at the JCCA annual concert in St. Francis Hall, April 23, 1949. Fujino Family Photo Collection, P-14212.

Tanekichi and Louise married on March 15, 1941, in Vancouver. They had two children: Geraldine Kimiko and Kenneth, who attended Revelstoke High School between 1956 and 1963.

The family lived in Vancouver until they were forcibly uprooted to Revelstoke in 1942. Tanekichi was employed by the Riverside Sawmills, which was located where Revelstoke Community Centre is now. Louise started working at Queen Victoria Hospital in 1951 and delivered about two-thirds of the kids in Revelstoke, as her son Kenneth said in an interview at SFU in 2018.

Tanekichi Isomura passed away on January 10, 1950, in Revelstoke, at the age of 58. He was buried in Revelstoke. Louise passed away on February 29, 1988, in Trail, BC, at the age of 80. She was a resident of Nakusp, BC, at the time of her death.