Last week, my ASTU class was given the opportunity to learn about the documents and archives related to our most recent read, Obasan. Being able to read these documents really opened up my eyes about both the historical and emotional context of the historical narrative. The documents that I got to closely examine were letters from the author Joy Kogawa to people including the Archbishop, the Premier of Ontario, and the Prime Minister of Canada, and replies from these people if there were any.

Kogawa wrote these letters with concern about the elderly Japanese citizens. They were not being treated well enough, and Kogawa wanted them to have their own nursing home, so they at least felt comfortable.  After all, they deserved this after going through discrimination, internment camps, and more. She also argued how if there was a Bill of Rights, all of this may never have happened. Her letters were well articulated and you can tell the importance behind them. She stated, “a culture is only as good as the way it treats its young and old”. After all the injustices her and her fellow Japanese Canadians face, it would be expected for the government to be willing to compensate them. The reply received from the Premier was positive but not promising. The reply from Prime Minister Trudeau was outright shocking. In fact, be barely even replied – he merely regarded her book as being something for his summer holidays, implying it is a “beach read”. While he could have used this opportunity as an attempt to heal broken relationships with the Japanese Canadian community, he used it to do nothing at all. Kogawa must have felt tremendously frustrated and angry toward this reply. Without saying it, his letter carried on the message that Obasan and her concerns were not a priority to him. It seemed that frankly, he did not care how the Japanese Canadian community still had to deal with the repercussions of what they went through.

However, positive fan letters somewhat began to make up for the lack of action by the government. These letters showed that even though some people did not really care, it still did make an impact on others. While there may have been some negative response to Obasan, it also shifted how people viewed this injustice. It educated some, and touched the emotions of others.

Reading both Obasan and the letter from Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau has made me think deeper about my privilege of being caucasian. Obviously, caucasian people would never be ostracized like that in Canada. And, in the unimaginable case that it did, if and when a white person reached out the government for help following the trauma, they undoubtedly would receive what they needed – maybe because the government would genuinely care, or maybe because they do not want their image to be tarnished. Just the fact that it is unimaginable for something like this to happen to one race but it did happen to another shows the leverage white people have over society in Canada, even though it presents itself as being a diverse and welcoming country. Although times have changed, Japanese Canadians today are still dealing with the consequences of the major trauma they faced – the apology from the B.C. government 70 years later cannot erase history.

Reference

https://www.straight.com/news/bc-government-apologizes-internment-japanese-canadians