In Obasan, Joy Kogawa highlights the emotional trauma that came with the decision by the Canadian government under Prime Minister Mackenzie King to intern immigrants of Japanese ancestry, even if they held Canadian citizenship. Kogawa is able to convey her points with the usage of flashbacks to the period between 1941 and 1949, when the interment took place while the main setting of the story takes place in 1972. Therefore, the fact that the main storyline takes place in 1972 and the book’s 1981 publication underlines the fact that in the 1970s and 1980s, these issues had become a larger point of focus in Canadian society, which Kogawa used her novel in the midst of this time to send shockwaves in Canada’s political landscape. Overall, the
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Accordingly, Willis notes a significant event that occurred just a few years after the publication date: “the question of reparation to Japanese Canadians was beginning to receive exposure in the press; and since the newly elected Prime Minister Mulroney's promise of reparation in 1984, the issue has become ‘hard news’ and receives continuing media attention.” (Willis 1987) Japanese interment had clearly been gaining more attention in the Canadian press in the 1980s, setting the stage for Kogawa's publication of Obasan in 1981, and creating the atmosphere for the sorrowful themes and motifs that the novel includes. For example, Kogawa noted in the early part of the novel, “It wasn't a fishing vessel or an ordinary yacht, but a sleek boat designed by Father, made over many years and many winter evenings. A work of art. "What a beauty," the RCMP officer said in 1941 when he saw it. He shouted as he sliced back through the wake, "What a beauty! What a beauty!” (Kogawa 25). In this sense, readers truly see a symbol of how Canada viewed people of different cultures than what had been dominant in the nation, contrary to its perception outside its borders, as these fleets would ultimately symbolize the pain the Nakane and Kato families deal with. This also occurs in other scenes even much later than …show more content…
Readers see this in Kogawa's characters and the events of their lives. Notwithstanding, many saddening events happen in Naomi’s life, such as a newfound distance from her parents and actions of sexual abuse enacted against her. Rao highlights over this, stating, “The narrative enacts a process of re-membering, of the colliding together of fragments of memory, of connecting the present and the past in order to deal with a child's memories of loss as she is severed from her parents and her beautiful home in Vancouver.” (Rao 2004) Children often, when experience traumatic events, forget any memories they have of them and block them out of their minds since they were so psychologically damaging, and in this case, it could be stated that Naomi is having the same experience. However, these feelings are in great contrast with the Japanese custom of holding in emotions, which Magnusson makes clear: “Physically, the sensation is not in the region of the heart, but in the belly. This that is in the belly is honoured when it is allowed to be, without fanfare, without reproach, without words.” (Magnusson 1988) Unfortunately, this is what makes the effects of her sexual abuse by Old Man Gower worse, and these actions only tear her apart from her mother even
Accordingly, Willis notes a significant event that occurred just a few years after the publication date: “the question of reparation to Japanese Canadians was beginning to receive exposure in the press; and since the newly elected Prime Minister Mulroney's promise of reparation in 1984, the issue has become ‘hard news’ and receives continuing media attention.” (Willis 1987) Japanese interment had clearly been gaining more attention in the Canadian press in the 1980s, setting the stage for Kogawa's publication of Obasan in 1981, and creating the atmosphere for the sorrowful themes and motifs that the novel includes. For example, Kogawa noted in the early part of the novel, “It wasn't a fishing vessel or an ordinary yacht, but a sleek boat designed by Father, made over many years and many winter evenings. A work of art. "What a beauty," the RCMP officer said in 1941 when he saw it. He shouted as he sliced back through the wake, "What a beauty! What a beauty!” (Kogawa 25). In this sense, readers truly see a symbol of how Canada viewed people of different cultures than what had been dominant in the nation, contrary to its perception outside its borders, as these fleets would ultimately symbolize the pain the Nakane and Kato families deal with. This also occurs in other scenes even much later than …show more content…
Readers see this in Kogawa's characters and the events of their lives. Notwithstanding, many saddening events happen in Naomi’s life, such as a newfound distance from her parents and actions of sexual abuse enacted against her. Rao highlights over this, stating, “The narrative enacts a process of re-membering, of the colliding together of fragments of memory, of connecting the present and the past in order to deal with a child's memories of loss as she is severed from her parents and her beautiful home in Vancouver.” (Rao 2004) Children often, when experience traumatic events, forget any memories they have of them and block them out of their minds since they were so psychologically damaging, and in this case, it could be stated that Naomi is having the same experience. However, these feelings are in great contrast with the Japanese custom of holding in emotions, which Magnusson makes clear: “Physically, the sensation is not in the region of the heart, but in the belly. This that is in the belly is honoured when it is allowed to be, without fanfare, without reproach, without words.” (Magnusson 1988) Unfortunately, this is what makes the effects of her sexual abuse by Old Man Gower worse, and these actions only tear her apart from her mother even