Dear Readers,

The novel Obasan, by Joy Kogawa, captures the memory and historical accounts of Japanese Internment in Canada in early 1942. Through the life and memories of Naomi, the main character, we are exposed to the brutal realities of the life of Japanese-Canadians following the bombing of Pearl Harbour. After visiting the Rare Books and Special Collections library, many of us were faced with the surprising rejection of Obasan. As a piece of genuine historical remembrances, one would think there would be little room to reject such a novel. Lilly Flawn discusses the rejection of such an important component of Canadian literature, but as a result, it makes Joy Kogawa’s efforts even more respectable and admirable. She also considers the conveyance of memory, and how through the requested alteration of Obasan, Joy’s personal accounts could be distorted. Lilly asks, “…do these modifications in her story redefine how her memory is conveyed?”. This suggests that editing and adjustments carried out by someone other than the author herself would create a “false” or inauthentic memorable account. Lilly uses the example of Aunt Emily’s letters, and the reviewers’ suggestion to modify them. I believe this would be a form of falsification; if the novel is deemed a memoir, the memories conveyed in the book should remain original and authentic, despite the editor’s request to do otherwise. Ayse Kabaca also discussed the rejection of the book, claiming that “she wrote the book for a specific audience and not only for the sake of literary purposes… it has the purpose of educating Canadians about a specific event, the Japanese internment.” This suggests that Joy Kogawa was not aiming for her chance at fame, but rather to expose the grim reality of Japanese internment, and share her personal experiences as a child. This novel is in attempt to capture and express the frightful phenomenon, not to write a literary piece of art. This is aided by the fact that Joy Kogawa was first published as a poet, but in pursuit of exposing the history of Japanese internment and the millions that suffered, she tried her hand at writing a novel.

Lisa Basil examines how Obasan captures the racist realities of Canada as a “historical issue rather than a pervasive and modern one”, and how this could allow one to easily detach themselves from the historical claims due to its lack of “modern” relevance. Meaning, because Japanese internment no longer applies, one may deem it unnecessary to establish an attachment to it. Lisa discusses the natural human tendency to assume we have better morality than we realistically do, and if placed in Canada during a time of heightened prejudice, we too would play the part and ostricize the Japanese-Canadians. Without accepting the reality of Japanese internment and being empathetic toward the Japanese-Canadians, we are unable to understand the depth of what they experienced.

Overall, visiting the RBSC Library exposed us to Joy Kogawa’s true difficulties in producing and publishing Obasan. We were able to more personally understand her work, her edits, her critiques, and more specifically, her pain. It allowed us to understand the depth of Joy Kogawa’s experiences and the challenging process of remembering.