Sending good thoughts and props to Sharks forward Devin Setoguchi, who is holding it down for San Jose in the playoffs. Here's a San Francisco Chronicle article from last week, where he talks a bit about being Japanese Canadian -- and one of only a handful of players of Asian heritage in the NHL: Sharks' Devin Setoguchi set stage for playoff success.
Setoguchi is one of only a handful of NHL players of Asian heritage. He is a third-generation Japanese-Canadian, half Japanese on his father, Dale's, side.Go Sharks.
His grandparents, Ken and Nancy Setoguchi, were interned during World War II, moving away from their home in British Columbia and into a camp for a year.
"After the war, they went back to their house - and there was another family living there," Setoguchi said. "So like a lot of Japanese families, they relocated to Taber."
That's Taber, Alberta, where the potato farm that Ken and Nancy Setoguchi started remains the family business. And Setoguchi's grandparents are his biggest fans, he said, especially Nancy, who often supplemented his $70 weekly stipend when he was playing junior hockey.
"I take pride in being Japanese-Canadian," Setoguchi said. "I'm half white Canadian, too, and I'm proud of that, too, but I know the sacrifices my grandparents made. That has never gone unnoticed by me. I wouldn't be here if they hadn't made those sacrifices."