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Gordon R. Kadota
Gordon Ryo Kadota, a nisei, was born 1933 in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. At the age of seven he went to Japan for a visitation but the outbreak of World War II prevented the familiy's return to Canada and he returned to Canada in 1952 after completing his high school at Kwansei Gakuin in Japan.
He entered the travel business in 1961 and specialized primarily as a Travel Wholesaler and Tour Operator. Although widely travelled to many parts of the world, his major concentration was the development of travel between Canada and the Pacific Rim countries. He has conducted many study tours and seminars for both Canadian and overseas travel agents. A wide association with various business concerns across the Pacific led to the formation of Canaway Consultants in 1973, a company that specializes in providing consultation and coordination services to businesses in both Canada and Japan. In that same year, in partnership with Kyosen Ohashi, he founded O.K. Gift Shop Ltd. that currently has retail outlets in Vancouver, Banff, Niagara Falls and joint venture stores in New Zealand and Australia.
In community and volunteer work, Kadota has served on numerous tourism boards and missions since 1965, as well, he has been involved in the Japanese Canadian community since 1955 serving both at the local and national levels. Kadota was president of NAJC when the redress movement first began. Most recently, he served as the President of the National Nikkei Heritage Centre Society, an organization that is undertaking to build a $20 million multi-complex community facility in Burnaby, B.C.
Gordon Kadota, president of NNHC,
opening ceremony, September 22, 2000.
(photo: NAJC)
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Former NAJC President, Gordon Kadota,
made a presentation to the Special Joint
Committee on the Constitution 1980 on
the uprooting of Japanese Canadians.
(photo: Vancouver Sun)
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