Mizuta Family

Jisaburo, Tane, and Haruji Mizuta. P-13690.

Jisaburo Mizuta [1890 – 1965]

Tane Mizuta (nee Yukawa) [1902 – 2001]

Haruji (Harry) Mizuta [1933 – present]

Asako Mizuta [1936 – present]

Jisaburo Mizuta was born on November 26, 1890, in Osaka, Japan, to Asakichi and Kane (nee Tabuchi). He came to Canada around the 1920s. He married Tane Yukawa on May 31, 1932, in Vancouver, BC, then came to Revelstoke. He worked for the Canadian Pacific Railway. They had two children, both born in Revelstoke. Son Haruji was born in 1933 and daughter Asako was born in 1936. The family lived in railway boarding cars at various points along the railway mainline between Revelstoke and Field. 

In March of 1936, Jisaburo was injured in a railway accident that broke his leg, and took the lives of 16 railway workers, including four Japanese Canadian men. In 1938, Jisaburo and Tane and their two young children returned to Japan.

Jisaburo returned to Canada in 1941 and worked as a cook and labourer at the Great Northern Cannery on Sherman Avenue in West Vancouver. In 1942, he was forced to relocate to Solsqua, BC, where he worked on the road between Revelstoke and Sicamous, BC. He was exiled back to Japan in 1946 but returned to Canada in 1964 with his wife to join their children, who were then living in Vancouver.

Jisaburo passed away on July 8, 1965, in Vancouver, at the age of 74. Tane passed away on November 9, 2001, in Vancouver, at the age of 99.

Tane holding baby Asako, 1936. P-14167.

Tane, baby Asako, and Haruji, 1936. P-14168.