Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
P. R. Godine
DDC/MDS
| PR9199.3.K63O2 |
Description
A powerful and passionate novel, Obasan tells, through the eyes of a child, the moving story of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Naomi is a sheltered and beloved five-year-old when Pearl Harbor changes her life. Separated from her mother, she watches bewildered as she and her family become enemy aliens, persecuted and despised in their own land. Surrounded by hardship and pain, Naomi is protected by the resolute endurance of her aunt Obasan and the silence of those around her. Only after Naomi grows up does she return to question the haunting silence.
Media reviews
The Globe and Mail
Obasan's power comes from the beauty of the writing, the stark imagery and vivid symbolism, and from the calm recitation of events that destroyed families, a culture, and a way of life.
User reviews
LibraryThing member veevoxvoom
Summary: A Japanese-Canadian woman named Naomi tells the story of her childhood experiences during World War II as the Japanese-Canadians were sent to internment camps.
Review: This is a book that I think all Canadians should read. There are many Canadians who don’t even know that Canada interred
It’s a short novel but it is dense and the language is often dreamy, winding and wandering and ambiguous. I found it hard to read despite its brevity. The jumps between past and present were jarring, and some of the dialogue very awkward. I had trouble getting into the interiority of many of the characters because they seemed to put on a mask and hide their feelings. But I still think that it is an important book. It reminds me of The Diary of Anne Frank. It’s not the most polished or compelling book in the world, but it addresses a subject that none of us should forget and addresses it from the point of view of someone who has experienced it. Obasan is fiction but the author, Joy Kogawa, was interred as child, so I can’t help but feel some of it is autobiographical. Even if it isn’t, it speaks from experience.
Conclusion: Important Canadian lit.
Review: This is a book that I think all Canadians should read. There are many Canadians who don’t even know that Canada interred
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Canadians of Japanese descent during World War II, an ignorance which is alarming and problematic. We know details about the home front in American literature but virtually nothing about our own country. Obasan is probably the most famous of the novels that address this issue, powerful with its theme of silence versus the breaking of silence.It’s a short novel but it is dense and the language is often dreamy, winding and wandering and ambiguous. I found it hard to read despite its brevity. The jumps between past and present were jarring, and some of the dialogue very awkward. I had trouble getting into the interiority of many of the characters because they seemed to put on a mask and hide their feelings. But I still think that it is an important book. It reminds me of The Diary of Anne Frank. It’s not the most polished or compelling book in the world, but it addresses a subject that none of us should forget and addresses it from the point of view of someone who has experienced it. Obasan is fiction but the author, Joy Kogawa, was interred as child, so I can’t help but feel some of it is autobiographical. Even if it isn’t, it speaks from experience.
Conclusion: Important Canadian lit.
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LibraryThing member SqueakyChu
From a historical point of view, I found this novel interesting. I never before knew that the Japanese were persecuted in Canada in the same way as Japanese-Americans during the World War II. It hurt me later to learn (from Medicine Hat College's website) that Brian Mulroney’s Conservative
The novel started out with soft and gentle writing. Slowly it became very sad. I was a bit stuck in the middle (the part about the letters and diary of the mom to Aunt Emily). At that point, I had to think about who was where and who was who. I didn’t enjoy this confusion. It was also here that the novel seemed to slow down for me. Perchance that was due to the author’s quiet, lyrical way of writing. Toward the end of the story, I felt the full impact of the book and what the author was trying to say about racism. I can now say that it was a book well worth reading.
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Government in Canada did not give official apology and authorized redress to Japanese Canadians until 1988. The novel started out with soft and gentle writing. Slowly it became very sad. I was a bit stuck in the middle (the part about the letters and diary of the mom to Aunt Emily). At that point, I had to think about who was where and who was who. I didn’t enjoy this confusion. It was also here that the novel seemed to slow down for me. Perchance that was due to the author’s quiet, lyrical way of writing. Toward the end of the story, I felt the full impact of the book and what the author was trying to say about racism. I can now say that it was a book well worth reading.
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LibraryThing member freddlerabbit
Obasan is the interior dialogue (and some interaction, usually in memory) of a young Canadian woman of Japanese origin whose family was torn apart and suffered during the exile and partial relocation of Japanese citizens by Canada during the Second World War. Although I know quite a bit about these
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programs in my own country (the US) and in Canada, this novel brought the wrenching experience home in a vivid and emotional way - and gave some sense of the complications of life after such an experience. The prose is dense, and rich, and yet not hard to read. The characters are real and living, and the story is extremely well paced. I highly recommend it. Show Less
LibraryThing member BookAddict
The writing is fabulous, poetic, beautiful. The history of the subject is horrific and a disgrace to Canadians. I live in Vancouver and my family has lived here since the 1800's. I feel a great disgrace that my people were present here during this horrible period in our country's history. Searching
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my heart I seek an answer as to why the citizens of this place did not speak out and demand that this unforgivable injustice not be pursued. There are no excuses, there are only wrong-doing and shame left. My non-Japanese fellow countrymen stooped to the depths of naziism in that time. The worst is that this is recent history and only a few years before I was born did it begin. While I was still in diapers the Japanese citizens, who were no different than myself in place and rights of birth, were being persecuted like animals while I enjoyed the safe family life of my house in Vancouver. My heart is heavy with sorrow for all the people that suffered so unjustly, I am disgusted. There is nothing else to say. I will make sure my children understand this portion of history and hope that they learn from it so that in the future, events of this kind must be fought against with all ones heart. I thank Joy Kogawa for writing this book. Everyone should read this. Show Less
LibraryThing member JGoto
What I liked about the novel, Obasan: It has information about the internment of Japanese Canadians during and after WWll. This is a topic I knew nothing about and it was interesting. For me, that was just about the only point of interest in the book. The title, Obasan, means "Aunt," yet this
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character is so flat and poorly drawn that by the end of the book the only thing the reader knows about her is that she is losing her hearing as she ages. The other characters in the story are equally two dimensional. I was surprised by the media praise the book received - I just don't see how it is deserved. Show Less
LibraryThing member Trippy
I love this book! I use it in both teaching History and English.
LibraryThing member lbernheim
This is a very interesting book about the next generation dealing with the internment camps. I recommend this to high school students who want to read about World War II on the North American home front.
LibraryThing member jacketscoversread
Obasan is narrated by Naomi, a sheltered and pampered child who is five years old when her life is drastically changed by the events at Pearl Harbor and the Second World War. As a Japanese Canadian, Naomi is separated from her parents, persecuted and eventually placed in an internment camp - common
“If all this sounds like a bird’s-eye view to you, Nesan, it’s the reportage of a caged bird. I can’t really see what’s happening. We’re like a bunch of rabbits being chased by hounds.” {pg. 107}
The one bright spot in Naomi's life is her Aunt Obasan, her protector and caregiver after she is separated from her parents. Naomi is only able to face her past after the death of her Obasan, and the letters given to her upon her Obasan’s death.
Reading Obasan, for me, was a lot like riding a roller coaster. It had its highs and lows, but in the end, I walked away feeling sick to my stomach. Yes, Obasan is an important account on the internment on Japanese citizens in Canada and, later, the use of the atomic bomb.
But its format is so confusing that I quickly lost interest in a story that originally kept me frantically turning the pages. Kogawa skips from present to past, and even goes so far as to skip around within Naomi’s past, making it a struggle to figure out exactly where in time the story is taking place. There is no little plot development and even less character development. In addition to all of the unnecessary, distracting description of scenery, Obasan is almost impossible to understand.
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practice in Canada during WWII. “If all this sounds like a bird’s-eye view to you, Nesan, it’s the reportage of a caged bird. I can’t really see what’s happening. We’re like a bunch of rabbits being chased by hounds.” {pg. 107}
The one bright spot in Naomi's life is her Aunt Obasan, her protector and caregiver after she is separated from her parents. Naomi is only able to face her past after the death of her Obasan, and the letters given to her upon her Obasan’s death.
Reading Obasan, for me, was a lot like riding a roller coaster. It had its highs and lows, but in the end, I walked away feeling sick to my stomach. Yes, Obasan is an important account on the internment on Japanese citizens in Canada and, later, the use of the atomic bomb.
But its format is so confusing that I quickly lost interest in a story that originally kept me frantically turning the pages. Kogawa skips from present to past, and even goes so far as to skip around within Naomi’s past, making it a struggle to figure out exactly where in time the story is taking place. There is no little plot development and even less character development. In addition to all of the unnecessary, distracting description of scenery, Obasan is almost impossible to understand.
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LibraryThing member booksofcolor
I recently read Obasan by Joy Kogawa, which is about Canadian-Japanese internment in WWII. I had never even realised that Canada had similar anti-Japanese policies as the US. Recommended if you haven't read it.
LibraryThing member Lunawhimsy
Obasan is about aJapanese-Canadian women recalling in the 1970's her multigenerational family's experiences before, during, and after WWII. While many writers would juxtapose a idyllic childhood against the harsh, and racist treatment of WWII, Joy Kogawa does not. What can be assumed from the
The review’s were dead on: “A bitter, haunting story.”--The New Yorker
Powerful as a descriptive is an understatement.
Itsuka is the sequel
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outside looking in is just that, but from the main character Naomi's point of view we see it laced with child molestation, a topic that is never acknowledged, dealt with, etc. We also see through Naomi POV countless brutal acts that are disturbing, mirroring the injustice, and cruel treatment of human beings at that time through the cruel acts of children displaced, and suffering physically, emotionally, and socially. Throughout the novel you are following Naomi’s readings of material her aunt has accumulated documenting the government’s treatment of Japanese Canadian citizens, and follow up after the war, including correspondence relating to the search for Naomi’s mother who went to visit relatives in Japan shortly before the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and was not allowed back into Canada. Joy Kogawa is in her 70’s, and since she no doubt has memories of WWII, writes using vivid imagery of pain, torture of the human soul. Sometimes it felt that she may have been too vivid, the images overshadowing the plot. I recalled while reading how jagged, bizarre, frightening, yet alluring the evil spirit was in Ju-on, and how the pain both the characters mask, yet come out through the physical acts of others seemed similar. The story screams with anger, although it’s never felt by the unassuming Naomi, like a tormented soul that hasn’t realized it-yet.The review’s were dead on: “A bitter, haunting story.”--The New Yorker
Powerful as a descriptive is an understatement.
Itsuka is the sequel
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LibraryThing member mahallett
the ending was good and got it from * to **. the book jumped around in time(this is always hard for me), had a lot of characters(hard to sort out) and just wasn't that interesting.
LibraryThing member KathyMcSparran
I found this a touching book, with interesting insights into what it is to be a Japanese American with old fashioned relatives who love you, but who come from and still live in, a world with very different rules.
LibraryThing member andrewreads
I enjoyed this book a lot. I thought it did a wonderful job recounting a terribly shameful period of Canada's history (the absurdly racist internment of thousands of Japanese Canadians during/after WWII) without being overly sentimental or theatrical. Kogawa mixed storytelling methods (relating
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much of the story through old letters, diary entries, and childhood flashbacks/recollections) to deliver a book that is poignant and readable. Because this is a period of time largely glossed over in US/Canadian history classes, I would encourage folks to give this a read. Show Less
LibraryThing member lamour
Naomi Nakane lives in British Columbia and while sheltered by her parents from the many realities of being Japanese in a racist society, she lives a happy cultured life. In 1941, her mother goes to Japan to look after Naomi"s grandmother. After December 7, 1941, her mother is trapped in Japan for
Meanwhile the Canadian Japanese many of whom were Canadian citizens were force ably removed from the BC coast and forfeited most of their possessions including cars and fishing boats. After the War, they were not compensated for these items and were resettled on the Prairies or further east. British Columbia was not an option. Kogawa vividly describes the trauma of the removal of the family from their home and sent to live in Slocan in a wooden barracks that was not built for the cold winters. This is a part of Canada's history of which we are not proud.
After the War, Naomi continued to with her aunt & uncle living a sheltered life in a Japanese environment. Her brother refused to "be Japanese" and lived the life of a famous concert violinist and rarely visiting her or his aunt & uncle because they were too Japanese. She always waited for Mother to contact her not realizing that her Mother had eventually died in Japan.
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the duration. To protect Naomi, her aunt & uncle never tell her the truth about what happen to her mother who was in Nagasaki the day the second Atomic Bomb was dropped.Meanwhile the Canadian Japanese many of whom were Canadian citizens were force ably removed from the BC coast and forfeited most of their possessions including cars and fishing boats. After the War, they were not compensated for these items and were resettled on the Prairies or further east. British Columbia was not an option. Kogawa vividly describes the trauma of the removal of the family from their home and sent to live in Slocan in a wooden barracks that was not built for the cold winters. This is a part of Canada's history of which we are not proud.
After the War, Naomi continued to with her aunt & uncle living a sheltered life in a Japanese environment. Her brother refused to "be Japanese" and lived the life of a famous concert violinist and rarely visiting her or his aunt & uncle because they were too Japanese. She always waited for Mother to contact her not realizing that her Mother had eventually died in Japan.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
Joy Kogawa's novel, OBASAN, first published nearly forty years ago, has become a minor Canadian classic. Its narrator, Naomi Nakane, a school teacher, looks back thirty years at her childhood spent in a desolate Japanese-Canadian internment camp near the tiny "ghost town" of Slocan during WWII,
Of course, the U.S. has its own shameful history of its treatment of Japanese-Americans during the war. I remember reading FAREWELL TO MANZANAR many years ago - another book that has attained that status of minor classic.
OBASAN is a sad, disturbing, and beautifully written little book. Very highly recommended.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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remembering the racism and discrimination and the quiet stoicism of her grandmother and uncle, who raised her and her older brother, Stephen. The family comes together again when her uncle dies, and the dark secrets of what happened to her parents in those years are revealed. But perhaps the most startling part of Kogawa's story for me is how the Canadian government continued to discriminate against its Japanese-Canadian citizens AFTER the war, denying them the opportunity to return to their homes in the west, instead pressing them to either move east or "repatriate" back to Japan. Naomi's family lived in a shed on a sugar beet farm in Alberta and worked like slaves for years.Of course, the U.S. has its own shameful history of its treatment of Japanese-Americans during the war. I remember reading FAREWELL TO MANZANAR many years ago - another book that has attained that status of minor classic.
OBASAN is a sad, disturbing, and beautifully written little book. Very highly recommended.
- Tim Bazzett, author of the memoir, BOOKLOVER
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LibraryThing member Cecrow
Naomi is navigating her singledom in 1970s small-town Alberta when a family tragedy brings her closer to a past she's tried to forget. This leads her to reflecting back on her childhood experiences leading up to and inside of an internment camp for Japanese Canadians during World War II. As a child
The writing style was sometimes an irritant for me, but the content is strong and the message is important. Surrendering to racist fear cost our country valuable unison in wartime, and the wrongs that were inflicted on this segment of our population weakened the moral ground from which our country fought World War II. There was clearly a hypocricy to fighting in freedom's name while we were stealing it away in our own backyard. It does not cancel out the heroism of our veterans or make wrong what we did right, but this story reminds how Canada's leaders and its people - how any people - can be fallible and wrong-headed when they let fear guide them.
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she could not know of the nuance or understand everything that was happening. She saw the tragedy on a different level: the rapid and eventually complete unravelling of safety, security and family. Some readers don't like the child's perspective in this novel, but in that alternative version we would be told how it was the children who would suffer most. This is the story of one suffering child. Now that she is revisiting her memories through adult eyes, with all the relevant documentation before her, new interpretations spring to light and the full story of forced internments and migrations emerges with its impacts on both the young and the old who were made its victims.The writing style was sometimes an irritant for me, but the content is strong and the message is important. Surrendering to racist fear cost our country valuable unison in wartime, and the wrongs that were inflicted on this segment of our population weakened the moral ground from which our country fought World War II. There was clearly a hypocricy to fighting in freedom's name while we were stealing it away in our own backyard. It does not cancel out the heroism of our veterans or make wrong what we did right, but this story reminds how Canada's leaders and its people - how any people - can be fallible and wrong-headed when they let fear guide them.
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LibraryThing member lafon
One of the driest, dullest, most uninteresting, and uninspiring piece of fiction I have ever read. I may try to come back and re-try reading it in the future.
LibraryThing member lisapeet
This was a heartbreaker, but beautifully written, and such an eye-opener about how Canada treated its citizens of Japanese ancestry. Really horrifying—I knew about the U.S. and the internment camps, but this was a bit of a shock, with second and third generation Canadians forced to give up all
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their possessions and their homes and relocate to shantytowns and perform forced labor. Kogawa was originally a poet, though, and it shows. Recommended. Show Less
Subjects
Original publication date
1981
ISBN
0385468865 / 9780385468862