Mark Toyama was a Nisei writer who published several popular works in The New Canadian prior to his early death. He was perhaps best known for his poem “powell st,” first published in The New Canadian in 1940 and then reprinted in 1942 in the midst of the Japanese Canadian community’s forced removal from that area. Toyama also contributed short stories to the paper, and was a member of the Nisei Scribbler’s Circle, a group of young aspiring writers in Vancouver from 1940-1942. During the forced removal period, Toyama lived in New Denver, where he worked as an X-Ray technician for the tuberculosis sanatorium. He passed away there in 1946.
