Hello readers!

I must first off apologize for not writing over the last few weeks.  Last week I had the opportunity to write as the “class blogger”.  I had to read all my fellow classmates blog posts and then summarize their posts and elaborate in my own post.  I realize that I did not post that on this page, so here is the link to my ASTU Class Page.  Which I must say, is worth a read!

I am going to take a slightly different approach this week, and focus on the really interesting experience of visiting the Archives and Rare Book Collection at the UBC library.  We went with the purpose of looking over Joy Kagawa’s fonds.  Joy is the author of the novel Obasan, which was the most recent read in class.  The novel is a story follows Naomi and her family as well as other families through the struggles and challenges faced as well as how men and women were treated during Japanese internment camps is Canada during World War II.  The novel inspires its readers to consider all sides of the story and to ask questions as to why these actions were seen plausible to the Canadian Government.

Today we spent our class time looking at all of Joy Kagawa’s records, with everything for love letters to fan mail, and the first hand written draft to the letters to and from Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.  Having spent only an hour or so looking over the archives that were brought out for us, I did not get a lot of time to look over even a quarter of what was in the box in front of me.  The box I looked through had multiple drafts of the novel Obasan, as well as editorial notes and critiques.  The class found letters from students, teachers, and friends all phrasing her work and thanking her for writing a terrific story.  It was interesting to see the editor’s notes written on the drafts.  It was eye opening in the sense that whenever I think of a book I always think of the finished copy, never the drafts, edits, and thousands of corrections that go into making the finished copy.  It made the novel and the story seem real as I was able to hold all the drafts in my hand.

The most interesting artifact that I came across was a title page that had a variety of different phrases that I assumed to be the titles that Joy had considered for Obasan.  After having read the novel, there were four titles on the list that stood out to me, as they related to major parts of the novel that we had discussed in class.  The first one was “A Canadian Story”, which had been crossed out.  There was a discussion we had in class when we talked about how throughout the novel the idea of who was classified as Canadian and even though Naomi and her family considered themselves Canadian since they were born here, they were still discriminated against.  I take it since Joy had crossed out the option, she didn’t find it fitting.  The second title that stood out to me was “If I must remember”.  We have discussed if we feel it is important to remember specific events and the idea that some people choose to remember while others choose to forget.  Throughout the novel it is depicted that Aunt Emily is the one who chooses to remember and continually encourages the others to remember.  Kagawa depicts herself as one who does not necessarily feel a great need to remember and it is often contemplated throughout the novel.  This title is fitting to how I grasped that Kagawa felt about the history.  I don’t think I would necessarily want to remember something this horrible either.

The third title was “Everyone Someday Dies”.  This statement is said Obasan (her aunt), when her husband dies.  She is struggling deal with her lose and repeats this phrase to Naomi many times.  This statement is blunt and makes no excuses; it just gets straight to the point.  Whenever I hear a statement along this line, I automatically relate it to the idea of living you life to the fullest… because it’s true in the fact that everyone does die someday.  The final title that stood out to me above all the others was “The Silence Never Dies”.  Through reading her novel you can imagine how to someone who has suffered everything she and her family had that you would in a sense be silenced, because you would be lost for words… and that feeling of being lost for words is exactly the silence she is talking about, that silence and the shivers that run down your spin never die whenever you talk about these hardships.

Kagawa’s book Obasan served as an eye opener, and I would definitely recommend it!  The time spent in the fonds was really interesting, and I will definitely be going back as often as possible!

Here is the CBC archives link to the apology from Mulroney.

Till Next Time!