Vancouver — From Tuesday's Globe and Mail Last updated on Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009 04:40PM EDT

It's been a long time – if ever – since a prominent royal visited the city's notorious Downtown Eastside, even in its former, more benign status as Skid Road.But that's where the 75-year-old Emperor of Japan and his 74-year-old wife will come calling during their three-day stop in Vancouver.The rare royal foray into the area by a frail couple, from whom aides warn reporters to expect very, very slow movement, did not land on their agenda easily. It took weeks of intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying to overcome initial resistance to the idea of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko venturing through neighbourhoods few tourists see.In the end, history won out.

The streets of the Downtown Eastside were not always rife with the boarded-up businesses and daily horrors we see today. Once, this was the heart of Japantown, a thriving ethnic community every bit as significant as nearby Chinatown, before internment scattered the residents and delivered their businesses and possessions into the hands of others.

On Sunday, the Emperor and Empress will pay their respects to the sole remnant of the old Japanese days that remains intact and in business, the Vancouver Japanese Language School and Hall. The historic, 80-year-old building also stands as the only property in the city to be returned to Japanese-Canadian hands after the war.

Laura Saimoto, a member of the language school's board of directors, couldn't be more pleased. She is proud of the building's history, its survival and where it is, just a few blocks from the drug bazaar at Main and Hastings Streets.

“My grandparents and my parents were interned. Like all Japanese, they lost everything,” she said Monday. “But in spite of that history, in spite of all the tough times, we are still here. We stuck it out. To have the Emperor come here gives us a huge moral uplift and incentive to keep going. It's a huge, huge honour to us.”

And coming to the Downtown Eastside, itself, is also positive, Ms. Saimoto said. “When you come to see a city, it's good to see both sides. History is not clean and perfect. History is history. Yes, this neighbourhood is rough, but the media is far too negative about it.”

A mere two months ago, Naomi Yamamoto was elected to the B.C. legislature as the province's first Japanese-Canadian MLA. She, too, believes that it's a good thing for the Japanese royals to see something of the province beyond the picturesque.

“It would be a shame if they left B.C. with just images of the Nitobe Gardens [at the University of B.C.] and the [Olympic speed skating] Oval. I think it's terrific they are visiting the Language School, and hopefully, it will convey to them the many years that Japanese-Canadians have been here. It's not the best part of town, but it has a lot of history.”

Before it was closed by wartime authorities in early 1942, the Japanese Language School, an impressive white building with black and gold mosaic tiles, had more than a thousand students. For the next five years, it was occupied by the Canadian Armed Forces, then used by various local businesses until 1953, when half of the property was restored to the Japanese-Canadian community after a vigorous campaign.

The return of the school was pivotal to returning ethnic Japanese, said Gordon Kadota, who came back to the city in 1952.“We came back with nothing,” said Mr. Kadota, 75. “We had to start all over. That language school was our only meeting place, so it was very, very important to us. It has that history, and it's still being used today.”

However, even Mr. Kadota had a bit of a start when he heard the Emperor and Empress of Japan might be paying a visit, given the area's reputation and hardened streets.

“The first thing I thought was: ‘How are they going to get there? Along Hastings Street? Along Powell? Are they able to see outside?' All that crossed my mind. But I think it's a good thing they are coming. It's our history, after all.”