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“ Imrmira-nts are flocking to Manitoba in ever-increas- my numbers. The New Ca- nadians come from i‘ all

countries, each seeking his .

or her owni particular dream — come - true. What does the immigrant want?

‘ How does he judge us? This -

is the first part ofa special Tribune series about indi-

vidualimmigrants in Mani-

tob-a.

By Tribune Staff er

“The people of are warm, friendly and won- derful.” ; . 3 T ,

And that made all the differ- ence to the Yasuteru Kobay- iashi family when they landed

at Vancouver in -March, 1966,

with no home, no source of income and a ‘1imited;.com- mand of English. J

Canada

Mr. Kobayashi (whieah means Little ‘,Wood) grew up in Tokyo, where he went to school, and attended college after the Second World War.

Some, English was required , for entrance, and he supple- ,

mented his studies with ‘what

he picked up working e~venings’” for the British Ciommonwealth C Occupation. Forces. E '

3

then, ‘ J and I

Following university he

iworked with the aircraft‘ divi- sion of «a heavy industry firm , in Tokyo. But a-s early as

1963, his thoughts turned to- ward Canada. r . e

. “This is a young country‘

whose population of 20 million is just double that of Tokyo alone. It has a wealth of na- tural resources and is begin-

ning , a large indust.rializatfion process which will require

wonderful, says Mr.

more manpower. As there is a close economic relationship between Canada and Japan, I felt if I worked in Canadian industry I would benefit both

Canada and Japan,” he says.

Mr. Kobaya.sh.i’s only pre-

ipuaration for his new life was “to find out what Canada is”,

through piamphlets and other

reading material from Cana- “L.a.nguage wasa hobby learned some

. Spanish. and Hindustani from F ’ the troops,” he says. . J

dian immigration officials. Finally, when his seven-

year-old daughter finished her

first grade studies at the end

“of March last year, the fam- ily embiarked for Vancouver,

intent upon remaining there. First impressions w e re

yashi. Clearing Canadian im- migration was a simple pro-

cedure and ~ the officials pro-; s vided. the family with a taxi

to a nearby; hotel. Next day, during a visit to

Cana~dian immigration offices,

Mr. Koebayashi was directed

K0ba—

to a atouristi apartment nears -Stanley Park which was much

less expensive than the hotel. The "family remained there

a month, during which time _ he took a job with an electri-

cal fixtures firm. , However, Mitsubishi Can-

ada Ltd., a sub«s:idiary of the

firm for which he pp worked in

Japan, offered him the job of

Winnipeg representative. Soon

he moved his family here. Today, over a year later, Mr. .Kobzaya;s:hi is happy and a

satisfied with ~-Winnipeg.

,“I have survived the c o . winters without too‘ much dif- ficulty. And ~ the.:Winn-ipeg peo- ple are the warmest I have

met "-in my business travels across the country, although all Canadians are friendly.” family also seems to be adjusting to Mrs. Kobayashi does not speak

. any English yet,‘ but she can t

its new life.‘

«’ understand a little. Their

daughter, who was ‘promoted to Grade 2 in June, -is be- coming quite fluent, thanks to her friends a nd teachers.

“I don’t speak English to

her at home, as I know my

pronunciation is not always

correct, and I don’t want her

to forget Japanese,” Mr; Ko- br‘aya;shi says. . <“I. would not

courage the rest of my family

to come to Canada if they

had a trade and at least” a

basic knowledge of English If they don’t ’ understaned the “ language, it will be very dif-

ficult for them to carry on over here,” he says;

Mr. Kobayashi has realized

his ambition to work in Cana- dian industry._ e . , T Meanwhile, he will, work to-

ward his second major ambi- ‘

tion —— to be a Canadian cit- izen. . i

return to . Japan, .b-ut I would only en-

‘The winters, cold; the people, warm’ AUG 181967 gs‘ l .

Yasuteru Kobayasuhi