To help his kids love their Japanese Canadian identity, this dad writes books

Children's book author Jeff Chiba Stearns clearly remembers the first time he asked his parents about their experiences as a mixed-race couple. His mother, who is Japanese Canadian, and his father, who is white, told him their relationship hadn't always been easy.

"It was eye-opening, because they had stories about being an interracial couple," said Stearns. "It made me sad, because my parents felt discrimination about their marriage."

Stearns, who is fourth-generation Japanese Canadian, is on a journey of reclaiming his cultural heritage — and he's dedicated to passing it down to his children Yuki and Takashi.

A culture interrupted

Like many Japanese Canadian families, Stearns's parents and grandparents grappled with the impacts of internment.

During the Second World War, an estimated 90 per cent of Japanese Canadians were stripped of their homes, detained and held in internment camps across Canada. Stearns's family narrowly avoided that fate. They lived in the Okanagan, outside of the coastal zone where people people were seized, but during and after the war they faced an ongoing  intolerance towards their community. 

Nearly eight decades later, that trauma still reverberates within his family.

"There was so much racism and discrimination toward Japanese Canadians after internment, that a lot of Japanese Canadians decided it's best just to assimilate," he said.

"My Mom never learned Japanese; I never learned the language. I felt I had lost that piece of my history."

Now that he's raising his own children, Stearns is committed to reclaiming his history and passing down a pride in identity to the next generation. 

That passion for reclamation is what inspired him to begin writing children's books. 

'Mixed Critters'

On a recent afternoon, Stearns sat with Yuki and Takashi to read his 2018 ABC book Mixed Critters. It's the first children's book he wrote, and features a variety of fantastical "hybrid" animals.

"Do you know why I made this book for you guys?" he asked his kids, "I made Mixed Critters because you guys are little mixed critters."

"What?" responded Yuki.

"You're part-Japanese and part-European Canadian. You're a mix of different things, just like your daddy," Stearns answered. 

Celebrate what makes you whole

Becoming a father to Yuki, 5, and Takashi, 2, has not only inspired Stearns to write books about mixed-race identity. It has also inspired him to ensure that the next generation of Chiba Stearns carries on their proud heritage.

"As parents who are conscious of our own identities, it's important we talk to our kids about identity," said Stearns. "I never had that conversation with my parents [growing up] and, at the end of the day, I wish I had." 

For Stearns, putting his family stories into books is a way to have these conversations. His second children's book, Nori and His Delicious Dreams, draws from a difficult moment he had in elementary school.

At a "multicultural day" in his classroom, each student was asked to bring in a cultural dish. His mother spent hours carefully preparing sushi. But on the day of the feast, none of his classmates would eat the sushi. Even his teacher turned her nose up at it.

"I remember dumping it in the garbage and telling [my mother] that everyone ate it. I didn't want to hurt her feelings," recalled Stearns. "A lot of those experiences I had stuck with me." 

Now that his own children are old enough to start understanding what identity means, Stearns focuses his parenting on fostering a sense of pride in their Japanese Canadian identity.

"We should be celebrating all of the facets of what makes us whole."