Racial Minorities as Enemies Alien?

1. Japanese Internment

2. Obasan Chaps 1-4Kate Liu

Literary Criticism: History (3)– History and Traumatic Memory

Outline

Joy Kogawa & Obasan: General Introd. Japanese Internment; Obasan

• Examples of Racial Differences and their Consequences

• Not Enemy Aliens; • Noami’s treatment of the Past vs. Her Aunts’

Joy Kogawa--Biographical Sketch born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1935 relocated to Slocan and Coaldale, Alberta

during and after WWII

Selected Publications: Obasan. 1983. Woman in the Woods. 1985.[poems]

Naomi's Road. 1986. [children’s lit.]

Itsuka. 1993. [Someday: the redress movement]

The Rain Ascends. 1995. [a woman’s discovery of her missionary father’s

being a pederast]

Awards for Obasan

Books in Canada, First Novel Award.

Canadian Authors Association, Book of the Year Award.

Periodical Distributors of Canada, Best Paperback Fiction Award.

Before Columbus Foundation, The American Book Award.

Obasan--Family TreesGrandpa Nakane

~ 1942

Father(Tadashi Mark)

Mother Nissei: Emily1916-

Sansie: Stephen

1933-

Isamu (Sam)

1889-1972

Ayako(Obasan)

1891-

GrandmaKato

Naomi1936-

Grandma Nakane1893 ~ 1945

stillborn

Ref. Family photo -- Chap 4; pp. 17-19; 20~ Discussed later

Grandpa Kato

Timeline 1893--Grandpa Nakane arrived in Canada 1933 – Uncle and Obasan got married. 1941--Mother returned to Japan (clue: p.

20 ) 1942--Vancouver Hastings Park prison 1945--the bombing of Nagasaki 1951--moved to Granton 1954--the first visit to the coulee (p. 2) 1972--narrative present--Uncle’s death

Map

Image source: http://canada.gc.ca/canadiana/map_e.html

Japanese Internment in Canada

The turn of the century: early immigrants (beginning; 8:00-11:40)

1941, December 7--the bombing of Pearl Harbor 1942--evacuation of Canadian Japanese (Nikkei)

from the Pacific Coast--the great mass movement in the history of Canada (Obasan 92-93)--21,000 people moved (clip 2 13:00 – 17:30 confiscation; clip 3 relocation)

1945-1949 deportation or 2nd relocation right to vote and return to B.C. (clip 4 22:00-) (Also chap 14 of the novel)

Differences between the States & Canada

U.S.: 1913 -- California Alien Land Law prohibited "aliens ineligible to citizenship" (ie. all Asian immigrants) from owning land or property, but permitted three year leases.

April 1942 -- The assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps were set up, and relocation of Japanese-Americans began. Internment camps were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.

1944 -- Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt,

1946 -- the last of the camps was closed in March.

Differences between the States and Canada (2)

1. Canada:

-- Dispersal of family members--men sent to road camps in the interior of B.C., sugar beet projects on the Prairies, POW camp in Ontario;

-- not allowed to go back to the West after the War;

-- their properties liquidated.

Differences between the States and Canada (3)U.S.1. 1980 -- President Jimmy Carter signed the

Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act – for investigation

2. 1991 – Bush’s letter of apology Canada 1980s--redress movement 1988--formal apology to Nikkei+ $21,000

(Cdn.) to the survivors

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (1)

1972

|

| 1954

Chap 1: 8/9 1972 Present Cecil, Alberta --1954 Granton 1951(the bombing of

Nagasaki) — Chap 2: 9/13, 1972 Uncle’s death Chap 3: back to Obasan’s house, question

about the mother Chap 4: memories of the family (stone

bread)

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (2)

1972

|

|

1941Vancouver

Days

Chap 5: Obasan in the attic, memory as spider Chap 6: nightmare Chap 7: Emily’s package—her last visit and the

question if Naomi wants to know “everything” Chap 8: Obasan lady of the leftovers Chap 9: starts to remember- from the photo to

memories of the house p. 50 — Chap 10: Momotaro Chap 11: episodes of the white chicken and Old Man

Gower Chap 12: —separation starts—the mother first; Chap 13: preparation to leave; Chap 14: bath with Obasan; Emily’s diary (-110)

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (3)

1942 train to Slocan

Slocan, BC

1945, leaving Slocan

Chap 15: leaving for Slocan Chap 16~26 : fragmentation and re-

building of a community in Slocan Chap 27 ~days in Granton, Alberta, and

Emily’s package Chap 32 -- start to talk about the mother Chap 37~39 – final revelation &

resolution Chap 40 – the government document --

against the deportation of Japanese Canadians.

Discussion Questions

How are Naomi, Obasan and Uncle, as survivors of the collective trauma of internment, presented at the beginning of the novel?

How does Naomi start to remember? The Kato and Nakane’s family photo

presented? What can be the significance of the opening

epigraphs?

Japanese-Canadians: (1) Not Enemies Alien Uncle --Uncle Sam, Chief Sitting Bull) ([1] 2);

-- adaptation to new lives and mixture of two cultures [3] p. 13 stone bread, margarine as Alberta;

Father –like Mandrake the magician Obasan -- an old woman in

Mexico, France, as “the true and rightful owner of the earth.) ([3] 15)

Japanese-Canadians: (1) Displaced, aging and family life disrupted Uncle – displaced from the sea and his fishing

boats([3]13), forever severed from the sea ([4] 22) Uncle and Obasan – old and fixated

(uncle --1, Obasan and Gramdma N – [4]17

the house is old) ([3] 15) Emily and Naomi – no love life ([2] 8) Naomi-- tense ([2] 7);

-- her thirst for knowledge ([1] 3)

-- rational control over her emotion: her mind separated from herself ([2] 9).

Stephen in constant flight ([3] 14)

The Past: Different Treatments How do the three generations each deal with the

past differently? Obasan--issei—

• language of grief--silence ([3] 14); • ancient; accepting death; • live with the past ([3]11, 14-16; [5] 25-26 ),

Emily--nisei—• energetic, visionary ([2] 8), • To Naomi: “You have to remember…Denial is

gangrene” [壞疽 ] (49-50)• [later]“word warrior” (32), “white blood cells” (34) • Asserting her Canadian identity--“This is my own, my

native land”

Different Generations on Language and Silence “To the issei, honor and dignity is

expressed through silence, the twig bending with the wind….The sansei view silence as a dangerous kind of cooperation with the enemy.” --Joy Kagawa in an interview with Susan Yim

Historical Reconstructions –[more next time] Three ways of dealing with

memories:

• Obasan: ancient woman who stays in history • --can be consumed by the past, • --can make use of the leftovers

• Emily: “The past is the future” p. 42

• Naomi: “Crimes of history . . . can stay in history” p. 41

Naomi’s thirst and fragmentary memories “Why do we come here every year?” “Why did

my mother not return?” -- her thirst for knowledge ([1] 3)

Transferred to her uncle ([3]14) Photographic memories –Older relatives described with humor –like advance guard

• Grandfather Kato: the toes of his boots to "angle down like a ballet dancer's" (17)

• Grandmother Kato: "nostrils wide in her startled bony face" (17).

Naomi’s Photographic memories Family photo:

• Grandma Nakane's "plump hands" and "soft lap“• Grandfather Nakane—like Napoleon. • "look[ing] straight ahead, carved and rigid, with

their expressionless Japanese faces and their bodies pasted over with Rule Britannia " (18).

• Mother – beautiful, fragile; Emily – short waved hair

Naomi’s Photographic memories

Family as a knit blanket, moth-eaten Uncle and Father’s – the boat – the

relocation. Memories – in a whirlpool of protective

silence epigraph

For next time --

From dis-member to remember to re-member Pay attention to the use of imagery: of animals, fairy tales, fragments, stone and sea.

Imagery of Stone & Sea

What is the significance of the stone imagery?

The bible--“a white stone”--”a new name written”

epigraph--“The word is stone.” Uncle’s stone bread the coulee/ the ocean/ uncle and Chief

Sitting Bull/ the family as a knit blanket (24-25)

References

Japanese Canadian Internment http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Canada/internment/intro.html

A History of the Japanese-American Internment http://www.fatherryan.org/hcompsci/

Analysis of two apology letters http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=3267

coulee - 深谷