Interview with Yaeko Fujimoto

Yaeko Fujimoto, professionally known as Ogawa Hideya, was born on March 27, 1927, in Yokohama, Japan, and grew up in Osaka, Japan. Her father was the founder of a Japanese dance school under the Ogawa school of dancing. Yaeko had a difficult childhood and ran away from home at the age of 13 to Korea, where her sister resided. After the Pacific War ended, Yaeko was repatriated to Japan as Korea was no longer a Japanese colony. She found herself estranged from her father, and thrusted into a challenging postwar labour market. Yaeko began working as a ballroom dancer and instructor, a job she did not enjoy. She got married to a Canadian-born Japanese in 1950, and immigrated to Canada in 1955. In Canada, she continued to work as a Japanese dance instructor for the Japanese diaspora.