Amanda's Blog

On October 31st, 2017, my ASTU class took a field trip to the RSBC Library. During this visit, we were divided into groups who each received one of Joy Kogawa’s archival materials. The documents that my group analyzed consisted of many documents by the Dominion Department of Labour which were for Japanese Canadians. The purpose of these documents were to relocate the Japanese Canadian because they could not go back to the West Coast (B.C). The Japanese Canadians would fill in the documents and submit them to the Dominion Department of Labour (DDL).

This field trip expanded my perspective on Obasan and Joy Kogawa by understanding more about the process of this relocation of the Japanese Canadians. This reminded me of one of the themes in the novel; memory. The accumulation of all the archival materials themselves are one part that contributes to Joy and the public’s personal and collective memory of the traumatic events her, her family and fellow Japanese Canadians experienced.

Analyzing the official documents from the DDL intrigued me and I found the requirements and information included on these documents very interesting. In terms of memory, these documents helped me to comprehend how Kogawa’s perception of memory is by collecting materials. These materials would not only contribute to public (collective) memory but they also help support Kogawa’s book and help her narrate a story with the influence from her personal experiences. By sharing her archival materials with the public, this benefits us in a way that helps us understand the circumstances of which the Japanese Canadians were put through. This may also help us relate certain situations in the novel to other traumatic events in history.

The archival materials produce a sense of how we interpret history and how us, the public, can understand another person’s experiences. This may make events in history more reliable as we are exposed to primary sources, such as the documents regarding the relocation of Japanese Canadians. In addition, we had the opportunity to evaluate the first drafts of Obasan. This not only enhanced our understanding of these events, but also contributes to how history is created through the eyes of someone who witnessed it.