Consul-general of Japan visits Bedeque Museum

​Bedeque Area Historical Museum was stirred from its winter slumber this week to welcome a special guest. Jun Saito, Consul-General of Japan in Montreal, stopped by to view an exhibit on the Mizuno family, a Japanese Canadian family who lived in Central Bedeque from 1946 to 1952.
He was welcomed by Bedeque resident, Catherine Callbeck, who told the story of how her grandfather, William Callbeck, invited the Mizuno family to come settle in Bedeque, establishing a connection between the two families that has endured decades.
George and Kimiyo Mizuno and their four children were among the many Japanese families living in Canada who were forced from their homes and into internment camps during the Second World War.
After the war ended, the interned were made to move somewhere in Canada outside British Colombia or return to Japan.
Callbeck explained that her aunt Louise Callbeck, who had worked as a missionary and teacher in Japan for 20 years, learned of the Mizuno family through a fellow missionary worker. Louise’s father William agreed to provide a home and farmland for the evacuees. The Mizunos are believed to be the first of these evacuee families to settle on P.E.I. and moved to Central Bedeque in 1946.
“It’s good to know of this Japanese family who came here and were placed in the hands of good people,” said Consul-General Saito.
“It’s so important that you made this exhibit for the Japanese people and the Mizuno descendants,” he said, expressing his gratitude on behalf of his government and the Japanese people. “You are preserving the footprints of Japanese Canadians here.”
The Nov. 28 visit by the Consul-General, whose jurisdiction covers Quebec and the Atlantic Provinces, was his second to P.E.I. since being appointed to this post in October 2021.
Saito expressed hope that the exhibit would attract more Japanese visitors and the surviving Mizuno family members.
Despite living and farming in Bedeque only six years, the Mizuno family’s involvement in the community, church and school endeared them to area residents. They also formed a connection to the Callbeck family which remains intact 70 years later.
​Picture: Jun Saito, Consul-General of Japan in Montreal, was presented with a gift from Catherine Callbeck of Bedeque, during his visit to the Bedeque Area Historical Museum on Nov. 28. They are standing in front of the exhibit on the Mizuno family, one of the first Japanese-Canadian settler families in P.E.I. The exhibit opened in July.