Last week we ventured into the UBC Library archives to take a closer look at Joy Kogawa’s Obasan and the variety of processes that were behind its creation and continue to surround the book. The Fonds contained everything from publisher rejections and newspaper articles about Japanese internment to fan mail with pastel rainbows from school children. One piece I found of particular interest was a letter written in the form of a poem to Kogawa from one of her readers. As I read it the first time, I had no idea what on earth the poem was getting at…. but the words stressed me out! They made my body ache and tense. So I took a quick picture (making sure to put that little legalistic “for research purposes only” slip in the shot) and put it in the back of my mind for later pondering on the bus ride home.
Although it somewhat defeats the purpose of poetry, I’ll give my best shot at the gist: why and how do we measure division how does one respond to the scarcity of those who seek the fullness of unity? These were spoken of in terms of warmth. It brought up images of fire and flames as divided warmth, and the sun as the togetherness of warmth, unreachable in the vastness of space and beyond understanding. There was an air of desperation, of waiting, of hope in clinging to the warmth of fleeting fire and light on earth. Why did these words and themes hit me like a large school bus and why did I feel that they were so relevant to Obasan, to the world?
Obasan delves into these themes of division and unity with people (albeit fictional), not warmth. What does it mean to be both Japanese and Canadian? Why do people insist on putting up walls amongst themselves? This is the division that the characters in Obasan are at odds with. But there is that desperation and clinging onto the hope for a better future, that clinging to the fleeting warmth and vision for unity that so scarcely appears amongst the division. These themes are a big deal in this world. While the sun and fire are arguably more poetic and drive the feelings home with great force… we see how the themes are relevant and ridden with controversy on the ground in Obasan. This raises some interesting questions about the place of these literary genres as technologies of memory. With the poem and Obasan getting at similar themes but one having a more profound effect on me than the other, what does this say about the subjectivity of technology of memory? What does it say about the need for diversity in what we draw upon for memory?
Works Cited
Kogawa, Joy. Obasan. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Penguin, 1981. Print.
Joy Kogawa Fonds,UBC Library Archives,