Shuzaburo Kawakami
Shuzaburo Kawakami came to Dawson in 1901 when his brother, [Yasutaro], returned to the territory from Japan with his new bride. He and Yasutaro were fluent in English, and Shuzaburo managed to read the entire Encyclopaedia Britannica by 1923. In 1910, Shuzaburo was the proprietor of the Japanese Bazaar in Dawson, a business started by his brother. He sold novelties, glass and china, fine silks, clothing, and post cards.1)
In 1913, Shuzaburo wrote an article for the Dawson Daily News to report that at the time there were ninety Japanese people living in the territory: eighty-one men, five women, and four children. They were operating hotels, stores, restaurants, bath houses and a machine shop. He concluded that racial discrimination and prejudice, common on the Pacific seaboard, was unknown in the Yukon.2)
In 1931, Shuzaburo launched a campaign against mail order shopping.3) In early July 1935, he was taken to St. Mary's Hospital suffering from paralysis and loss of memory. 4) Later in July, some took advantage of Kawakami’s illness to ransack the shelves of the Japanese Bazaar store. 5) He recovered from the stroke and continued running the store until 1940.6) The store held a closing sale in October of that year.7)
Kawakami became a naturalized Canadian in Vancouver in 1941.8) It is unknown why he waited this long to apply. The following Yukon Japanese men applied for naturalization in 1911: Fred Harramura (cook), Kisuke Kamada (cook), Ihinzo Kilamura (waiter), Uniji Oinuma (cook), Fiein Sata (cook), Kijiro Tsuji (miner), and Herokichi Tabasaki. 9)