Hide Hyodo Shimizu

Hide Hyodo Shimizu (1908–1999) was a Japanese-Canadian educator and activist. She was an advocate for Japanese-Canadian rights and enfranchisement, and during World War II she established and operated schools for Japanese-Canadian children in internment camps. Shimizu was later awarded the Order of Canada for her work.

Early life Hide Hyodo (later Shimizu) was born in 1908 to Hideichi and Toshi Hyodo in Vancouver, British Columbia. Her parents, Hideichi and Toshi Hyodo, had emigrated from Uwajima, Japan, and Hide was the first of their eight children. Shimizu visited the camps herself every month, commuting between Steveston and Vancouver, even as she was obliged to keep to a strict 9 pm curfew every night. Shimizu continued to play an active role in her community, and she lobbied the government to provide compensation for the harms done and property seized from Japanese-Canadians during the war.

Shimizu died in Nepean on August 22, 1999, aged 91.

Legacy In 1993, Shimizu was included in a list of women recognized by Status of Women Canada as having contributed to Canada's history and development. A few years later, at the Lord Byng School, school officials dedicated a traditional Japanese rock garden in her honour.

The Greater Toronto Chapter of the National Association of Japanese Canadians (NAJC) and the Hastings Park Foundation now jointly offer a scholarship for Japanese-Canadian students in memory of Hide Hyodo Shimizu.