I would not hesitate to teach Obasan to high school students. In fact, my first exposure to Joy Kogawa’s work was in my grade 12 English class. We read only an excerpt from Obasan and it was my – and many of my classmates – first exposure to the disturbing treatment of Japanese-Canadians during WWII. For many years I actually wasn’t aware that the text we had read in class was only an excerpt, so I admit that I was quite excited to read the full novel.
My personal enjoyment of literature stems not just from the stories that are told or the entertainment of going on journeys with the characters. In my mind, literature is a great teacher of social, cultural, and political history. I’m a big supporter of integrating subject areas and feel that Obasan is a wonderful text to use in this way.
Obasan can be studied not just from a literature viewpoint, but also from a social studies and social justice view. History becomes more personalized and arguably more accessible for learners when it is presented in a narrative form. If a person becomes invested in the story, they are more likely to become invested in the events that motivated the story’s conception.
Kogawa’s novel could also be an interesting piece to use when talking about fiction versus non-fiction. Though Obasan is fiction, it reads very much like non-fiction. I would enjoy using this text as the basis for a discussion on using life experience in a creative way, as well as examining what elements make it feel like a true, historical account.
On a practical level, this discussion could be related back to essay writing. I believe that Kogawa’s novel is so compelling because she provides details and does not leave readers guessing or trying to puzzle their way through. This concept could be applied to essay writing in the form of gathering supporting evidence to back-up any points that are made in the essay. By providing relevant information, the author’s authenticity and knowledge do not come into question.
The elements that make this book feel like a true historical account are the letters and governmental publications regarding policies and initiatives. Having letters within a novel is a powerful tool because it becomes a type of ‘authority’ or ‘evidence’ to reiterate or prove the authenticity of the fictional basis of the novel. We cannot help but start to believe that those letters are real and that they really mean something. Somehow the information coming from the letters will determine the outcome of the novel. The letters become a source of information and unresolved mystery that drives the text forward from beginning to end. In fact, it gives a break in the narrative so that we do not have to solely depend on the voice of the narrative for their experiences and interactions regarding the events that are going on in the text. This is especially important as the narrative is from a child’s point of view. There are potential doubts in the ability of the child to determine and clearly portray what is going on politically, socially, and historically. For this reason, the letters or documents outlined in the text support the child narrative as well as gives a ‘seemingly’ adult authority to contextualize and prove the text.
One particular disjunction or lack of cohesion seemed to be in connecting the Japanese Canadian experience and the experience of the Japanese in Japan. This added to the sense of things being a bit fragmented. For this reason, it seems to take away a bit from what was really going on in Canada. It would have been perhaps more satisfying to get a real sense of the experience for Japanese Canadians only. However, there is an important element of the split identity based on families being split apart from each other and the lack of cohesion that is felt within the family unit is illustrated in a larger sense through the war and bombing in Japan.
In this way, perhaps this contributes to the feeling of being an immigrant and becoming a recognized Canadian. At the same time, it took away from the comments “We are Canadian!” because it kept referencing back to the experience in Japan with the other side of the family experiences in Japan. For example, the child’s mom is in Japan and she has no idea what has happened to her mom. Likewise, it seemed that while they were Canadians they are essentially still in large part Japanese, which is in part probably why the child narrative tends to focus on this and is in conflict with the Aunt’s interpretation of the need to be seen and looked at as Canadian. In this way, it seems to stress that it is not just about amalgamating into a Canadian identity but recognizing the history of the Japanese heritage and the new living experience within Canada. For this reason, it was nice to hear the confused and conflicting thoughts of the child in juxtaposition with the adult frustration of the treatment of Japanese in Canada.
The text gives a good sense of this disjunction and lack of cohesion not only for Japanese Canadians but within that group. For example, the intergenerational elements existing here give a scope and spectrum of experience. This adds to the experience in a holistic way. For example, there is difference between the experiences for the brother versus the daughter, between families, between friends, and between different economic classes in and among Japanese Canadians. Therefore, the text is holistic and shows the complexities of identity, experiences, coming of age, and the trouble with accurate historical accounts because experiences are very unique.
I believe that Obasan is an invaluable text to teach in our classrooms. I was really interested when I attended the BCTELA conference about the idea of a War and Conflict themed year. When I was reading Obasan I couldn’t stop thinking about the text in the context of such unit. Especially after reading Night, it would be interesting to use both these texts in a section of the year as perspective pieces for oppressed and displaced peoples. What I loved about Obasan, especially in terms of the War and Conflict unit, was the poetic nature of the language. Reading the text, although the events are chaotic and the Japanese people are displaced, I felt, as a reader, a sense of calmness. Kogawa created the ‘calm amongst the storm’ feeling by her poetic prose. She weaves the story and the events through her poetic prose and it creates an undulating feeling for the reader instead of the stark movement that the characters are experiencing. The sense of peace in the text would be an interesting and valuable concept to recognize in a unit on War and Conflict. The language of Obasan is in direct contrast to the language in Night: the language in Night is blunt, to the point and stinging to the reader. It would be interesting to assign both these texts in the classroom and have students compare the texts, in terms of their reaction, their interpretation and their reflection on the content.
The idea of using both these texts as perspective and personal pieces in a War and Conflict unit, I believe, would be emotionally powerful to students. Students can discuss the people affected by wars happening all over the world who don’t necessarily have a strong voice in historical texts taught in schools. Interesting to note, the people affected in Night and Obasan, are both in countries where the fighting isn’t actually taking place. The idea that war is global is something these texts could also demonstrate to students.
In a Humanities class, or paired with Socials classes in schools, students can also see the historical background and relevance to the events behind Obasan and Night. Teaching about WWII can bring background knowledge as well as provide telling visuals can further the impact of the texts. If cross-subject teaching isn’t possible, these texts are both still valuable in the sense that as teachers, we can bring in visuals to have the students see the events in the novel and get a sense of the setting and atmosphere of the texts.
When teaching Obasan, we are also lucky, in Vancouver, to have the Kogawa house available for our students to visit. http://www.kogawahouse.com/ is the house website where teachers can email to book school visits. The site states:
“School groups are welcome to visit Historic Joy Kogawa House for tours and discussion of the experience of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Please contact kogawahouse@yahoo.ca.”
Another resource for a quick background on the Joy Kogawa and the Kogawa house is at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Kogawa.
I agree with Ashley, I wouldn’t hesitate to teach Obasan in my classroom, and promote other teachers to teach it as well, not only for the resources, but also for the knowledge of an event in Canadian history that needs to be made aware.
I also wanted to point out this article I found up for Katie, regarding citizenship and the notion of “I am Canadian” in Obasan.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb009/is_3_36/ai_n29332441/?tag=content;col1
Hope it helps!
Resources:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb009/is_3_36/ai_n29332441/?tag=content;col1
http://www.kogawahouse.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Kogawa
Personally, I liked Obasan. However, I have some reservation about teaching it in a high school classroom. Having just done my inquiry project on boys’ reading and literacy rates in high school, I have recently come to the conclusion that our current, and a bit dated, curriculum, is not doing an adequate job of interesting most boys (and many students in general) in reading.
I think that this book, as pointed out in the other blog posts, is an excellent book to engage students in important historical events that have had a huge impact on Canadian culture. Further, Obasan is a wonderfully poetic and well-written novel and has the potential to demonstrate a variety of literary devices. If social and historical awareness is one’s primary goal as an English teacher, then this book should certainly be assigned. However, if one’s goal is to engender an enjoyment of reading that will last above and beyond students’ high school careers, then this might not be the best text. I had trouble pushing myself to read it after the first dozen or so pages, though I’m glad I did. There are many texts, most of which are more contemporary, relevant and interesting to students, that I would rather teach. The language and style of Obasan can come across as dated and some scenes are highly feminized.
Having said that, as Theresa pointed out last class, there can be other opportunities to include books that students might like better throughout the year. I do think that Obasan is a very important text and, given the fact that the internment of Japanese-Canadian seems vastly under-taught in Social Studies or History classes, should be part of the curriculum, if only to educate students of this dark chapter in Canadian history.
When I contemplate how best to teach this book, the word pre-teach comes to mind. Before I even gave students their copies of the text, I would do at least a two lesson mini-unit on internment. I would start by introducing images of the concentration camps in Germany and ask students if they know what the images are. Invariably, there will be at least a couple of students who will recognize them as images of the Holocaust. I would then show some images of Japanese interment in Canada. Fewer students are likely to recognize these images and this is a good jumping off point for discussion of the issue. A class conversation could evolve around questions such as: Why are we (Canadians) more familiar with Holocaust images? What do you know about the internment of people of Japanese heritage in Canada during WWII? What happened in the aftermath of this internment? Is this internment different from the Jewish internment was because it was created and sanctioned by a “democratic” government? A discussion such as this could be useful to talk about the role of government in the internment of Japanese-Canadians and this will be useful when reading the book because the governmental policies surrounding the internment are directly dealt with in the text. I would introduce some primary historical sources as well, such as the actual letters and policy documents from the government and newspaper articles.
While the students are reading the novel, I would have them draw a timeline and a geographical map of the movement of the characters on a transparency. Then, I would have the class place the transparencies over a copy of a map of present day British Columbia. This way, students can make their own connections to the geographical locations mentioned in the text, such as places they have been to or heard about. I would have students do this the day before the field trip to the Kowaga house. If I was to teach this novel during my practicum, this field trip would be especially relevant as my practicum school is minutes away from the Kowaga house. I think that if one is to teach this text, a lengthy discussion on historical context is necessary for students to grasp the important historical aspects of this text.
I would also like to comment on the validity of teaching this novel at the secondary school level. First however, I would like to comment on the novel’s strengths and weaknesses. As others on this thread have already pointed out; the novel provides a frank and direct account of what happened to Canadians of Japanese ancestry (and others) before and during the Second World War. However, the novel has several shortcomings as well. In the start of the book, the protagonist mispronounces her mother’s family name; and does so after a rather lengthy comment about how typical “Canadian” culture is unfamiliar with Japanese name pronunciation. Remember that Japanese language media are quite popular among young people today; and this might not go unnoticed by a secondary school audience. It certainly would not go unnoticed by anyone who speaks Japanese (a language often offered at the secondary school level in the lower mainland.) Secondly, tying the events in the lives of Japanese Canadians living on the west coast to the Nagasaki bombing feels contrived. Moving from Tokyo to Nagasaki is no short distance, and moving that distance with a family during the end of World War 2 when Japan’s infrastructure was badly damaged is even less likely. It would hardly have been unbelievable for her mother to have died in one of the many bombing raids that left Tokyo in rubble. Kogawa builds a mystery behind the fate of the protagonist’s mother; and then resolves that mystery by tying it to a tragedy that most people are familiar with. I feel that doing so cheapens the stark reveal of what happened in Canada; especially for a Canadian audience who might not be familiar with these events. Nagasaki (and Hiroshima) have received a lot of publicity due to the nature of the weapon used. However, there are many tragedies from the Second World War of even greater scope; such as the battle of Okinawa which left one of every three Okinawans dead.
But I would like to address how to teach this novel. It came up in our discussions that this book could make an interesting companion piece to Elie Wiesel’s Night. The section of letters in Obasan might stand on its own as an excerpt worthy of studying. What a teacher might do is assign Night to a group of reluctant readers, or boys who might not be interested in the entire Obasan story; and then teach the letters section as a companion piece; to demonstrate that the mentality and tragedy of World War Two was not limited to somewhere “overseas,” that it had a real impact on Canada (and British Columbia especially.)