Nikkei Voice Advertisement by David Johnson Last month's advertisement first appeared in the Nikkei Voice, September 2003, a pan-Canadian newspaper focussing on issues of interest to the Japanese-Canadian community. The Toronto Bonsai Society executive has decided to pay for the ad. The ad's purpose was to find out what had happened to the earliest bonsai in Canada which were worked on by Japanese-Canadians in the first half of the 1900s. Many of these bonsai might be around today had the Canadian government not interned their owners and over 22,000 other Japanese-Canadians - men, women and children - and sent them to camps mostly in the B.C. interior during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese descent. While carrying out its own version of ethnic cleansing, the Canadian government only allowed these Canadian citizens to take a minimal amount of personal items with them. Homes, businesses, automobiles, fishing boats, maybe even bonsai, etc. had to be left behind. Much of this was left in the care of government "custodians." It was often sold for a fraction of its value, for example, a recent TV documentary reported that a newly purchased $50,000 fishing boat was "sold" for $100. Many people received nothing. Numerous valuable family treasures and mementos were lost. As bonsai enthusiasts, we are interested if Japanese-Canadians can recall and piece together the history of Canada's first bonsai. As time passes, so will our ability to regain this history. After a long struggle, Japanese-Canadians were successful in forcing an apology from the Canadian government. But the damage was done with little restitution. This shameful story need not be forgotten; in fact, the truth needs to be told. In the case of these early bonsai, the truth needs to be discovered first.