Hey there fellow bloggers, this week’s topic that I’d like to focus on is the novel “Obasan” by Joy Kogawa that we are reading in ASTU 100. It’s been difficult to write about, simply because the novel sparked so many different thoughts and emotions in me. Emotions from sympathy to anger, nostalgia to injustice is surfaced when reading Kogawa’s novel but I’d like to focus on the injustice I felt when reading about our Canadian history.

The book in itself is a fiction piece about a woman, Naomi, who is going through her memories of the Japanese Internment during World War II. Even as a Canadian born citizen, her, along with her family are forced to endure troubling circumstances of racism and relocation, and the loss of their homes. The book is a course of unravelling of Naomi’s memories that have been tangled and suppressed that she unearths after her Uncle’s death. The book, although fiction, is a testament to the struggles of many Japanese Canadians who have experienced the trauma after Japan bombed Pearl Harbour. It is full of rich imagery and metaphors that provide a deep meaning to Kogawa’s own memories. For example, the turning back of time starts when she finds her Obasan (aunt) in the attic looking for something she has forgotten. (Kogawa 23) There are also strong themes of longing for change and going back to familiarity, Kogawa uses the term “someday” to touch on that. It is both hopeful and used to express a kind of resignation for the way things currently are. 

Personally, this novel has been hard to digest. I identify as a Canadian. I identify with my mother’s Japanese heritage as well, although with some distance I have to admit, even though I would be considered “Nissei” or second generation living in Canada. Still it’s a very personal topic. Reading the novel on the bus on my way to class, the 135 to Burrard Station takes me past Hastings Park where Kogawa is describing a time where Canadian citizens were kept trapped against their will in unsanitary and inhumane conditions.

Above is an image I found from the camp at Hastings Park, a building once used to hold animals, was used to dorm the Japanese-Canadians who were kicked out of their homes. I am very fond of my aunt, who is very soft spoken and humble, basically the image of a passive, peaceful Japanese woman. Where Kogawa describes Grandma Nakane huddled and refusing to talk to anyone, (102) I picture my Aunt Satomi, and I wonder how anyone could treat someone like her, like that. What amazes me most, and is perhaps hardest to digest about this novel, is the fact that this incident in history is rarely brought up. I understand Emily Kato’s character who is so adamant about being heard, because events like this in Canadian history are kept quiet so well. Maybe it’s because as Canadians, it’s a part of our history that we are ashamed of, but Kogawa’s novel does the difficult task of bringing up a past that has been “silenced” as she describes in the prologue. I think it is important to talk about, not because of personal resentments, but to consistently evaluate our society and make sure that subtle racisms don’t develop into internment camps or anything of the sort again. Like it was brought up in the novel, “He knows the war was just an excuse for the racism that was already there.” (Kogawa 35) 

I could write a great bit more on the subject, but I’m going to conclude this blog post with a link to a song written about internment camps that I find very relevant to the theme of “someday” that is included in Obasan. The song is called Kenji by Fort Minor.

Fort Minor- Kenji. Perf. Fort Minor. Youtube, 2005. Film.

Kogawa, Joy. Obasan: With an Introduction by Kerri Sakamoto. Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006. Print.

Scalza, Remy. “Rare Ansel Adams Photos of Internment Camps Now In Vancouver.” Inside Vancouver. Tourism Vancouver, 28 Apr. 2014. Web. 6 Nov. 2014. <http://www.insidevancouver.ca/2014/04/28/rare-ansel-adams-photos-of-wartime-internment-camps-now-in-vancouver/>.