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(Richmond Review, February 28, 1968)
Asari, Sadajiro (1897-1983)
Asari, Some
Sadajiro Asari was born in Kozo, Miyagi, Japan, on February 12, 1897. He died in Richmond, British Columbia on December 13, 1983. Sadajiro married Some Asari on Sea Island, in Richmond. She came from Japan to marry him.
Sadajiro and Some had five children, Lakeo Asari, Takeno Sandra Maekawa (née Asari), 1920-2005, Nobuye "Nobby" Yamaguchi (née Asari), Sue Kanegawa (née Asari), and Chiyo Narukami (née Asari).
Up until shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Sadajiro Asari had been a fisherman. When the Second World War extended to the Asia-Pacific regions, the Canadian government declared Japanese Canadians "enemy aliens". They confiscated their radios, cameras, vehicles and fishing boats and sent them to interment camps while all their belongings were auctioned off. The Asaris were sent to Lillooet where over 300 people were housed in 62 tarpaper shacks. The Lilloet town website stated, "After resident Sadajiro Asari found and repaired a pump, the Japanese Canadians were able to use an old wooden irrigation flume to carry water up from the muddy Fraser River to wooden storage tanks. Sadajiro became a tomato farmer in Lilloet."
In 1950, Sadajiro Asari returned to Richmond where he became a shipwright.
To view the Asari family tree on Ancestry or obtain further information, contact Barb Nielsen at barbaralynnnielsen@gmail.com.