Top Saskatchewan and Canadian bureaucrat Thomas Shoyama dies. Thomas Shoyama was born in Kamloops, British Columbia on September 24, 1916. Shoyama graduated from the University of B.C. with economics and accounting degrees. However, the racist climate prevented him from working in his profession. For example, the 1935 decree of the B.C. legislature read, “Be it resolved that this house go on record as being utterly opposed to further influx of Orientals into this province.” Instead, he worked for the Japanese newspaper New Canadian. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941, Shoyama and the newspaper were relocated to the deserted town of Kaslo, B.C., one of five towns used as internment camps for Japanese Canadians. Shoyama joined the Canadian Intelligence Corps near the end of the war and left in 1946 as a sergeant. While visiting Saskatchewan, he heard CCF Premier Tommy Douglas speak. With Shoyana’s education and smarts, the Saskatchewan government was happy to hire him and by 1950 Shoyama had moved up the ranks to be one of the top bureaucrats in the province. When the province became the first to create Medicare, Shoyama and colleagues drafted the appropriate legislation. When Ross Thatcher’s Liberals took power in 1964, Shoyama was one of 70 Saskatchewan bureaucrats to take top jobs in Ottawa. Between 1974 and 1979, Shoyama rose to the top as Canada’s deputy finance minister. In 1980, he made his way back to B.C. to teach at the University of Victoria. In addition to many awards, Shoyama became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1978 and received Japan’s Order of the Sacred Treasure for his contributions to the Japanese Canadian community in 1992. Shoyama died on December 22, 2006 in Victoria.
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