Obasan by Joy Kogawa
"Obasan" is a powerful novel by Joy Kogawa that addresses the experiences of Japanese Canadians during World War II, particularly focusing on the internment camps where many were forcibly relocated. The story centers on Naomi Nakane, who grapples with emotional paralysis due to her traumatic past and the loss of her family, particularly her mother, who disappeared during the war. As the narrative unfolds, Naomi's Aunt Emily emerges as a politically active figure, urging her to confront the painful history and injustices faced by their community.
Kogawa's work is notable for its deep exploration of identity, silence, and the complexities surrounding ethnic heritage in Canada. The novel intricately weaves together personal and collective histories, employing lyrical language and dream sequences to create an evocative portrayal of loss and resilience. It highlights the broader sociopolitical implications of the internment experience, challenging readers to consider the ramifications of prejudice and the struggle for recognition within Canadian society. "Obasan" is thus an essential text for understanding the cultural and historical context of Japanese Canadians, making it a significant contribution to the landscape of ethnic literature.
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Subject Terms
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
First published: 1981
The Work
Joy Kogawa’s Obasan has forced critics to include Asian Canadians in their study of ethnic literature; it is such a fine work no critic can ignore it. Kogawa has defined political and cultural connections between the Japanese immigrants of Canada and America. Both groups were held in internment camps during World War II. Their property was seized, and their families were often separated. In Canada and the United States the men of the families fought for their new countries while their wives, children, and siblings remained interred. Arguably one of the finest literary renderings of this experience, Obasan investigates what happened as a result of these practices.
Naomi Nakane, the protagonist of Obasan, appears emotionally paralyzed at the beginning of the novel. Unable to move beyond her own past in the camps and unable to reconcile the loss of her parents, Naomi has retreated into silence and isolation. Canada has essentially told Japanese Canadians that they are untrustworthy, second-class citizens at best, so Naomi retreats from her ethnic identity as well. Her Aunt Emily, however, is articulate, learned, professional, and politically active. Aunt Emily encourages Naomi to learn about the terrible things done to Japanese Canadians and to act on her anger. Naomi gains the impetus for change.
Shortly before the family’s relocation to the internment camps (when Naomi is a child), Mrs. Nakane leaves to visit family in Japan. She never returns and the family carefully guards the secret of her fate. It is only as a thirty-six-year-old adult that Naomi is given the letters that reveal her mother’s story of disfigurement and subsequent death as a result of the atomic bombing. The mother, herself, has imposed silence on the other family members. Naomi tries to engage her mother’s presence, to heal the rift between them, although her mother is not physically there. In writing the novel Kogawa has constructed an elaborate attempt to embrace the absent voice, to contain the mother in some manner useful to Naomi’s own construction of identity.
Poetic passages describe this imagined reunion. Dream sequences also punctuate the narrative, providing the touching lyricism that moves the novel beyond most of the literature written around the internment camp experience. Bound with the sociopolitical analysis provided by Aunt Emily and Naomi’s personal history, the novel sets high standards for literature on ethnic identity.
Bibliography
Canadian Forum. LXI, February, 1982, p. 39.
Cheung, King-Kok. Articulate Silences: Hisaye Yamamoto, Maxine Hong Kingston, Joy Kogawa. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1993. Enhances understanding of the writing of three significant Asian American women. The forty-page chapter devoted to Obasan examines the negative and positive aspects of silence in the novel.
Chua, Cheng Lok. “Witnessing the Japanese Canadian Experience in World War II: Processual Structure, Symbolism, and Irony in Joy Kogawa’s Obasan.” In Reading the Literatures of Asian America, edited by Shirley Geok-lin Lim and Amy Ling. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992. Explores the form and the symbolism in Obasan, concentrating on Kogawa’s biblical references.
Davidson, Arnold E. Writing Against the Silence: Joy Kogawa’s “Obasan.” Toronto: ECW Press, 1993.
Horn Book. XLVIII, October, 1982, p. 553.
Jones, Manina. “The Avenues of Speech and Silence: Telling Difference in Joy Kogawa’s “Obasan.” In Theory Between the Disciplines: Authority/Vision/Politics, edited by Martin Kreiswirth and Mark A. Cheetham. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1993. Discusses the power of narrative and the strategies behind storytelling in the novel.
Library Journal. CVII, May 1, 1982, p. 905.
Lim, Shirley Geok-lin. “Japanese American Women’s Life Stories: Maternality in Monica Sone’s Nisei Daughter and Joy Kogawa’s Obasan.” Feminist Studies 16, no. 2 (Summer, 1990): 288-312. A primarily feminist reading of two novels of the Japanese internment experience, focusing on the mother-daughter relationship.
Los Angeles Times Book Review. July 11, 1982, p. 3.
Maclean’s. XCIV, July 13, 1981, p. 54.
The New York Times Book Review. LXXXVII, September 5, 1982, p. 8.
The New Yorker. LVIII, June 14, 1982, p. 134.
Rose, Marilyn Russell. “Politics into Art: Kogawa’s Obasan and the Rhetoric of Fiction.” Mosaic 21, no. 3 (Spring, 1988): 215-226. Discusses Obasan in terms of “persuasion” and “history,” and explains how the language illuminates the message of the novel.
Wong, Sau-ling Cynthia. Reading Asian American Literature: From Necessity to Extravagance. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.