Monthly Archives: November 2015

When we first entered the conference room it was difficult to understand how all of the files laying on the desk revolved around one 250-page book, however as we started to look through the documents I began to understand. The few files in front of me were in reference to the newspaper articles that Obasan was mentioned in, while the ones beside those was a draft with comments from other scholars who helped Kogawa complete an amazing final draft. While I heard classmates across the room talk about the fan letters that had been sent to Kogawa about her book, just noting some of the impact that this piece of literature had created. After flipping through some of the files I still hadn’t realized the importance of them—until I realized that Joy Kogawa had, herself, read each one of these pieces of paper and while some may have held more importance to her than others, they were all important in the context of the creation of Obasan and all had shown the impact that it’s had for those who have read it.

With this field trip I was able to explore Kogawa as a person, and see some of the process of how she worked on her book and how much work went into it. I didn’t get a change to snap any photos of the artifacts however remembering how many folders there were and how there was even more of them it would be interesting to go back and look through a few more folders (future blog post??). Overall, the experience was enlightening and gave even more meaning to Joy Kogawa’s work and how she truly added to Canada’s history and the cultural memory of Japanese Canadians and Canadians in general. Obasan was a well-put together book that contributed immensely to my understanding of the Japanese Internment camps.

Also, this interview with Joy Kogawa and how she talks about the Legacy of Obasan is miraculous:

-Mckaylee Catcher

Hi everyone,

In our ASTU class we have been assigned the book Obasan. This book by Joy Kogawa is the story of a woman named Naomi who, as a child, was labeled an enemy alien along with her family after the Pearl Harbor bombing by the Japanese. She was separated from her mother while her aunt, Obasan, assists her in surviving. Once Naomi becomes an adult who teaches in a small town, and after the passing of her Uncle, she is able to comprehend her past of adversity and accept the role that her Obasan played.

The Japanese immigrants, many of whom had established lives, were removed from their homes and had their freedom taken away after 1942; this occurred until April 1, 1949 (CBC, Japanese Internment, 2001). Knowing this while reading made me think about the History of Canada, and it made me question how such things could happen. And then the answer of fear came to mind. As a society we fear the different, we generalize and don’t account for every individual and what their vast differences could be from someone else who looks ‘like them’; we only see what we want to see.

In the case of the Japanese internment camps, this was a very unfortunate generalization. Canada and the government of that time believed that there was a problem of this group of people, just as the Nazi’s believed of the Jewish people. The injustice that was shown towards Japanese decedents whose life was in Canada was truly not right. In the story of Obasan, we see that one can accept the past and learn to live with what’s been done to them, but the tragedy is that not everyone has that capability. With this I ask myself if we are able to accept fear in our lives, without letting it control us? Wasn’t the little girl of the novel fearful of her future? How did her Obasan help her? What about those who didn’t have someone to care for them during this time? What allows one persons fear to be greater than another’s? Why do we often acknowledge a fear, with another fear?

How do we let fear control us in today’s society?

Too many questions to ask, when no one truly has the answers.

-Mckaylee Catcher.

Works Cited:

CBC. (2001). Japanese Internment. Retrieved from www.cbc.ca/history/EPISCONTENTSE1EP14CH3PA3LE.html.