In our ASTU class we have started reading a novel called Obasan which is about Naomi Nakane who is a 36 year old middle school teacher. She recently received bad news that her uncle died. The novel is about her journey in discovering her families horrible mistreatment while living in Canada during WWII. Before reading this book I thought I had a good understanding of what happened during WWII mostly because of my high school social studies classes. However what I was taught didn’t really focus on what happened in Canada but more of what Canada did abroad on the battlefield. We only ever scratched the surface of what happened in Canada towards the Japanese Canadians and the internment camps. I have heard about this incident yet it isn’t talked about that often. Today in class we had a discussion about what other people knew about the Japanese camps in Canada. I found it extremely interesting because two girls in my group were from the United States and actually learned more about this event than I did, even though I went to a Canadian high school. Also another member of our group discussion today was from China and learned about the same information that I did, that Japan was seen as the enemy and the bombing of Hiroshima although it was bad and many people died, it was Japans fault because they bombed Pearl Harbour first. It was interesting to see the different perspectives that each country or place has on this event. I think it is really important that people acknowledge this event even though it is bad. It is especially important for Canadians to remember because its part of our history and in my opinion forgetting this event is disrespectful to the people who we discriminated against. The book Obasan helps to show the lingering effects this event has on the families who experienced the Japanese internment camps and by forgetting it happened it is still showing discrimination towards them. This event is just as important in Canadian history as every other event during WWII and should be treated as such.