Hey Readers!

A lot of growing and ugly realization has been done since my last blog post.

In my ASTU 100 class we have started a novel called Obasan by Joy Kogawa. Obasan captures the horrific events that the Japanese in Canada faced during World War II. Kogawa creates a family of characters that are ripped apart due to the displacement that is forced upon them by the Canadian Government. During this time, the Canadian Government viewed all of the Japanese living along the West Coast as a threat to Canadian security, because of the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour on December 7th, 1941.

Living in Vancouver my entire life I would have safely assumed that I was knowledgeable on the majority of large, historic events that have taken place here. However, Obasan was a very hard book for me to read. I was incredibly unaware of the details regarding the Japanese internment. I had no idea that their property was taken from them and that they were forced to leave their lives they had created along the coast and ‘evacuate’ to the interior of British Columbia. It was heartbreaking to learn that it was not abnormal for tightly knit families to be ripped apart, similarly to what we witness happening in Obasan. Getting into all the horrible details of everything that happened to these people, majority of them being Canadian citizens, would take days. The most difficult fact for myself to swallow is simply that I didn’t know. I have grown up in the British Columbia schooling system and I was oblivious that Canada was at fault for such an appalling historical stain.

My ignorance triggered a personal memory that was created on my past trip to China. My tour guide seemed like a very educated man as he had been able to provide my group with an abundance of information regarding China’s history. One of our day trips consisted of visiting Tiananmen Square; a name that many of us are familiar with. I was in grade 10 at the time and I had a fairly good grasp on the importance of acknowledging how the protesters were brutally treated by the Chinese Government. Although, at the time I didn’t know all the details and I was brimming with questions to ask my tour guide. Once we arrived at the site my guide simply announced to the bus to explore around and come back in an hour. I was unable to hold my questions in at this time and I thought asking my guide would be completely acceptable. When I began asking, a look of complete confusion covered his face and that was when I realized he had no idea what I was talking about. At this point our roles reversed and he began bombarding me with questions that turned to tears. It was a very strange moment for a grade 10 girl. Here I was in a completely foreign country standing in front of a fully grown man in tears because he couldn’t believe the history surrounding Tiananmen Square, a space a mere forty minutes from his home.

I used to look back at that day in China and wonder how a citizen of a country could be so oblivious to such a terrible part of their history. However, I am now the oblivious citizen. Obasan, even though it is a fictional novel, opened my eyes to a portion of Canada’s history that I was completely blind to. Each page I flipped put the same look of bewilderment on my face that I had once seen come across my tour guide’s. I am thankful for finally becoming aware of the inexcusable treatments that the Japanese Canadians faced during the Second World War and I aspire to further educate myself on this portion of history.

Until next time my friends!

Devon Coady