October 3, 1927 – December 22, 2017

Harold (Harry) Ikebuchi passed away quietly in the early morning of Friday, December 22, 2017 at a seniors residence in Kamloops, BC. He is survived by his son, Johnathan and his two remaining sisters Pat Ebata and Amy Hamaoka. Harold was predeceased by his wife Junko Ikebuchi (maiden name Ito), and siblings Howard, Joan and Jack Ikebuchi and Shizue Ogaki.
Harold was born on October 3, 1927 in Powell River, BC to immigrant parents from Japan, Ichitaro and Fujino Ikebuchi. His life was coloured by difficult circumstances and the social challenges that affect many immigrant families. Harold contracted polio at an early age, and the family lived in poverty when his father was injured in a forestry accident. Harold’s teenage years 15 to 18, were spent in a Canadian Japanese Internment Camp for the latter half of World War II. From an early age, Harold experienced bullying due to his physical disability from polio, scarcity trauma of the Depression, systemic racism, and a general lack of acceptance within his family. His parents were ill equipped to raise a large family and found it difficult to adapt to Canadian life. They raised their children as best as they could but they were a product of their time, and probably had experienced hurts and disappointments of their own that influenced how they treated their children.
Harold often spoke fondly of his younger brother Howard, and his sister Joan. From all collateral accounts, this trio of siblings showed great care and love for each other since they appeared to be outcasts in their family and society. Howard suffered from severe cerebral palsy; and Joan searched for love with men who were socially unavailable. Howard committed suicide at a young age, and Joan passed away suddenly from an aneurism while travelling abroad. According to Harold’s wife Junko, these losses affected him profoundly.
Harold had a colourful young adult life. He would speak of the loneliness he experienced living in Montreal, when he was shipped out of the Internment Camp away from his family at age 18. He had stories about how he would frequent Chinese gambling houses, after hours bars, and “cat” houses in Chinatown in Montreal and then Toronto in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a person of Japanese descent, he was barred from most mainstream nightlife businesses due to his ethnicity, even though he was born in Canada.
He was quite resourceful and had a strong work ethic. Harold had numerous jobs: from being a farm hand outside of Montreal, to a cab driver in Toronto during the early 1960s. He would often tell stories of working in the textile industry in Quebec, and in Jewish bakeries in Toronto, such as Lottman’s Bakery in Old Kensington Market. Returning to school in his mid-30s, he became a draftsman and then an architectural technologist. Since Harold had never finished high school and only had a grade 8 education, he had to lie to enter technical college. But he was able to read and taught himself trigonometry and technical writing on his own. One of his mottos was that “you can learn anything, as long as you can read, have a book on the topic, and are willing to try”. He went on to have a successful career in the architectural profession in Toronto from the late 1960s to the late 1980s when he retired. He specialized in hospital renovations and worked on and managed various projects that would attach new hospital structures to older buildings and infrastructure.
He was also an accomplished amateur artist and wood carver. He taught himself to draw, paint and carve on his own from books. Many of the landscapes that he painted came out of his imagination inspired by his time growing up in rural British Columbia as a child.
In 1968, Harold re-met Junko Nora Ito on a downtown street in Toronto and was married within a few months. During the war, Harold and Junko’s families had both been interned in the same camp at Tashme, near Hope, BC. In the spring of 1969, his son Johnathan was born. Junko was probably the only person, throughout Harold’s life that truly accepted him for who he was and gave him the unconditional love that he had always been looking for.
In 1977, Harold had a massive heart attack that left him unable to work for a few years. Over the next 40 years, he would have 4 more cardiac or vascular incidents that would leave his heart increasingly weakened. His first heart attack changed him irrevocably, and he lost much of his carefree optimism that defined his 20s, 30s, and early 40s. He became increasingly preoccupied with death. After the passing of his wife Junko, in 2005, Harold lost his will to live. He was never really the same, always hoping that his heart would stop so that he could be with June. His heart was literally “broken”. Soon afterward, when a much younger friend, Dave Hierlihy, died suddenly, Harold lost any want to cultivate new friendships. 
Harold was quick to show kindness and care to people. He had many acquaintances and people would often enjoy their interactions with him, even if they were brief. However, he could hold a grudge for long periods of time for personal slights or for reasons that only he could understand. There was no rhyme or reason for why he liked someone or chose to shut someone out. Harold did find a great deal of joy in his wife’s extended family in Kamloops. He befriended Kim Nagai (born Suzuki), who was his wife’s cousin, and a few years older than Harold. He watched Kim’s daughter Debbie, and Debbie’s family grow up. He always had a special place in his heart for Deb, her husband Gregg, their daughter Jordi and son James. It pleased him so much to know that Jordi and James had each got married, and were starting families of their own. Debbie was a huge support for Harold and his son, through Harold’s wife’s illness and death. Deb was a regular visitor to Harold in his final years.
Harold was acutely aware of the freedoms that he had lost to illness and due to growing older. He really hated moving out of his home and having to live in seniors’ residences, and then finally an extended care facility. He would often remark that: “this is no way to live”. His rigid beliefs that “things should be a certain way” reflected a defined ethical code. This was problematic for him sometimes as he aged, since it bothered him greatly when people did not meet some arbitrary standard that mattered to him. However, he always believed in the potential of people, and that “people needed to be given a chance to be good”. 
Overall, Harold lived a full life. He experienced a great deal of struggle, loss, and small personal triumphs over his 91 years. He was human and was unapologetic for who he was, and how he had lived. 
He will be missed.
Harold’s last requests to his son were: to not have a formal funeral or memorial service, to be cremated and then have his ashes mixed and spread with those of his wife on a mountain, or a river that flowed into an ocean. He suggested that people should go and do things that they liked to do, with people whom they loved, before it was too late and they were not able to do any of these things.
Harold’s son Johnathan would like to thank all the care providers: Dr. Dong, Dr. Hamilton, the staff at Royal Inland Hospital, at Ridge Pointe Residence, at Ponderosa Lodge, and those at Kamloops Seniors Village who touched Harold’s life and interacted with him for the past handful of years. Acknowledgement should be given to Schoening’s Funeral Home for assisting in the planning and taking care of Harold’s cremation. Without all of the care and hard work, of the groups and people mentioned above, this change and dying process would have been much more difficult than it has been. 

Thank you and Namaste. 

Condolences may be expressed at www.schoeningfuneralservice.com
 

• Date : 2017-12-22
• Location : Kamloops, B.C.