Roy Akira Nagamatsu was born on September 5th, 1923 in Pitt Meadows, British Columbia. He describes his childhood growing up in a large family, with five sisters and three brothers, on a large farm his family owned on which they grew berries, daikon, and other crops. In the spring of 1942, he and his entire family had to move to Hastings Park and were eventually relocated to New Denver. He describes living in Hastings Park, where he worked as as fireman at the hospital in Hastings Park, a job which he continued in New Denver. After leaving New Denver, Roy lived in Hamilton, Montreal, and eventually settled in Toronto where his mother, father, and two siblings joined him in 1954. In 1957 he met his wife. In conjunction with sharing the stories of himself and his family members, Roy shares the Japanese ancestry of his family and his wife's family, as well as engages in a passionate discussions on favourite Japanese foods with interviewer Lisa Uyeda.
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Citation
Roy Akira Nagamatsu, interview by Lisa Uyeda, November 11, 2010, 2010.074, Sedai: The Japanese Canadian Legacy Project Collection, Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre.