Canada's first Japanese community grew up in Victoria, the first Pacific port of call for Canada before Vancouver was even the name of a place. Here for the first time, the history of Victoria's Japanese community is recounted, beginning in the mid-1880s. In the early days, Victoria, British Columbia was the "Gateway to Promise" for Japanese immigrants.

Dr. Shimizu created a series of oil paintings based on his life in New Denver—reflections of his teenage years spent in the Japanese Internment Camp during World War II. The book reproduces 27 of his paintings which are accompanied by 27 stories that reflect his bitter-sweet memory of those years. Dr. Henry Shimizu went on to a distinguished career as a surgeon in Edmonton and to serve at the forefront of the Redress Movement.

SAKURA IN STONE: VICTORIA’S JAPANESE LEGACY is the second book on the subject of Japanese Canadian pioneers to be released by Gordon and Ann-Lee Switzer. This new work contains myth-shattering new research to give an answer to who was the first Japanese immigrant to reach Canada and stay to make Canada his home.

The book is divided into three sections. The first review and updates the history of the Japanese Canadian presence in British Columbia,s Capital City.The second part names the first true settler from Japan to reach Victoria and make Canada his home. The last section contains stories of some of the Japanese pioneers buried in Ross Bay Cemetery: their adventures, achievements and sometimes tragic deaths.