The ghosts of Japanese fishermen

Today I was in Steveston Village, at the Tapenades restaurant, shown above.

Same village where it all began in 1888--the migration of Japanese fishermen from Wakayama prefecture in Japan.

I spoke at length with the ghosts of two fishermen lost in storms off Vancouver Island a hundred years ago. They seemed anxious for me to know that although the work was hard and dangerous, they never regretted making the move to Canada from Japan.


A couple of years ago I bought a whole king salmon directly from a fishing boat moored at the Steveston docks for the princely sum of $2 because it was the end of the day. These days the fishing boats are run by Vietnamese and other non-Japanese fishing teams. And there is no longer any salmon cannery.