Jinnouchi–Tagashira Family

Shigeo Jinnouchi [1893 – 1931]

Masue Tagashira (nee Sonoda, m. Jinnouchi, m. Higo) [1908 – 1992]

Rinkichi Tagashira [1887 – 1973]

Masue Sonoda was born on December 2, 1908, in Shiga-ken, Japan, to Eikichi Sonoda and Kui (nee Yamamoto). Shigeo Jinnouchi and Masue Sonoda married and had two children: Donald (Masayuki) and Aiko. Shigeo died in a logging accident in 1931. Masue then married Hajime Higo on March 14, 1934, in Vancouver, BC. 

Masue eventually divorced Hajime and married Rinkichi Tagashira. Masue and Rinkichi were forced to relocate to Revelstoke. 

Donald Jinnouchi. 1946.

Rinkichi owned the Tagashira Trading Company from the early 1920s at the edge of Vancouver’s Powell Street neighborhood. Masue helped at the counter and was often joined by her son, Donald, on delivery trips across the city.

There is not much record of their internment time in Revelstoke. The only record found is that Donald attended Revelstoke High School from 1943 to 1946, and Aiko from 1946 to 1949. Masue had an Electric Treatment business as per the advertisement in the high school annual in 1949. The family likely moved back to Vancouver after Aiko graduated from high school.

Masue passed away on March 9, 1992, at the age of 83 in Burnaby, BC. Rinkichi passed away on September 23, 1973, at the age of 86 in North Vancouver.

(L to R) Donald (Masayuki) Jinnouchi, unknown boy, George Fukuyama, Hisao Saimoto, and Yutaka Wakita standing by the railway tracks, ca. 1940. P-13249.