Again though, Aunt Emily goes against this idea that is engrained in many Japanese-Canadians like Naomi. While it is true that she herself did not directly experience the effects of the internment, she became the voice many Japanese Canadians were afraid to speak. She does so by becoming informed of the events through the many conferences Naomi describes her to be a part of and the research she compiles for a paper she authored about Japanese sufferings during the internment (Kogawa, 33; 39). Likewise, when the movement of redress for became a possibility, third generation Japanese Canadian (Sansei) university students, who also did not experience the direct effects of internment, began to advocate for reparation – a movement that many Japanese …show more content…
Yet, silence as portrayed by Naomi in Joy Kogawa’s novel, Obasan only represses hurt that must be addressed. Japanese-Canadian movement groups realized these facts, and through their work success and reparations were attained. Kogawa represents the work of these groups by Aunt Emily - a woman destined to bring justice for Japanese Canadians. Her plea for justice is made possible through the transformation of Naomi’s thoughts toward her past. Like many Japanese Canadians did, Naomi tries to remain quiet about the reality she experienced. Though because of Aunt Emily’s courage to rebel against the traditional Japanese silence and her influence as an educated citizen, she is able to figure out methods that force Naomi to recall the past and come to realization that perhaps change may be able to one day heal the wounds her race faced. Similarly the motives of Aunt Emily were used by Japanese-Canadians advocates that chose courage over silence, resistance over defenselessness, and moreover, justice over humiliation. Therefore, Aunt Emily and the groups she symbolizes were essential for Japanese Canadians for their process of healing for they began a new story that few will remain silent about. It is the story of Japanese Canadian’s newfound aspiration for courage to tell of their experiences that would eventually promote healing and furthermore grant redress from the Canadian government they so
As Naomi says, Emily is a “word warrior.” She reads and rereads documents, writes letters, and goes to conferences to learn and understand more about what happened to the Japanese during WWII. Naomi is reluctant to talk about the events of the war, but Aunt Emily must talk about it. Naomi says, “Injustice enrages Aunt Emily. Any injustice. Whether she’s dealing with the Japanese-Canadian issue or women’s rights or poverty, she’s one of the world’s white blood cells, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot with her medication pouring into wounds seen and not seen” (Kogawa 41). Aunt Emily is an ambitious and hard working woman who will not stand for the mistreatment of others. She is very passionate and articulate in her speeches and seems to have a response for everything in the instances that Naomi tries to participate in a conversation. She fills her mind with so much information that she can have a stance on everything. She tells Naomi, “There is no strength in seeing all sides unless you can act where real measurable injustice exists” (Kogawa 42). With this argument, Naomi concedes, which signifies another “battle” won for Emily. When in the car, Naomi says Emily “bulldozed on” (Kogawa 42) with all of her commentary and insights. “Bulldozed” indicates a relentless power that exists within Aunt Emily’s spirit, thus making her a true
The Japanese living in Canada during World War II (WWII) faced one of the harshest and inhumane living conditions in Canadian history. One unidentified woman remembers, “it was terrible, unbelievable. They kept us in the stalls where they put the cattle and horses.” Before WWII, the Japanese were targeted for their culture. An example is the Anti-Asiatic League that was created to limit the number of Japanese men that could immigrate to Canada. Canadians did not want the potential competitors in farming and fishing. 22,000 Japanese Canadians were interned during WWII, even though 14,000 had been Canadian born citizens. This was because the Japanese had bombed Canada’s ally, the United States. With this in mind, the Canadians viewed the Japanese as the enemy. This made the innocent Japanese Canadians become the victims of unfair suspicion and they began to fall through the cracks of Canada’s developing society and government. Internment camps were created to forcibly keep the “dangerous” Japanese from the seemingly “innocent and civilized” Canadian citizens.
The Japanese Canadians were financially troubled by the government’s anti-Japanese policies and their impairments were never repaired commensurately even in the years after the war. Under the anti-Japanese policies, Japanese Canadians lost their jobs and properties, including their homes, motor vehicles, and fishing boats (Mollins, 1999). In the beginning of the war, due to the hatred towards Japanese Canadians, many of the Japanese Canadian owned businesses received very little customers and too many disruptions; thus, they had to close down (Hickman & Fukawa, 2011). Also, almost all of Japanese Canadians were fired from their work (Baldwin, 2011). This happening was very predictable, because Japanese Canadians taking over many of the jobs from Canadians and gaining more control over fishing industry in Bri...
Marsh, James H. "Japanese Internment: Banished and Beyond Tears." The Canadian Encyclopedia. N.p., 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 7 Jan. 2014. .
The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, tells her family’s true story of how they struggled to not only survive, but thrive in forced detention during World War II. She was seven years old when the war started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Her life dramatically changed when her and her family were taken from their home and sent to live at the Manzanar internment camp. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, they had to adjust to their new life living behind barbed wire. Obviously, as a young child, Jeanne did not fully understand why they had to move, and she was not fully aware of the events happening outside the camp. However, in the beginning, every Japanese American had questions. They wondered why they had to leave. Now, as an adult, she recounts the three years she spent at Manzanar and shares how her family attempted to survive. The conflict of ethnicities affected Jeanne and her family’s life to a great extent.
The horrors of racial profiling during World War II had always seemed to be distant to many Canadians, yet Canada was home to several xenophobic policies that were a violation of many rights and freedoms. One of the cruelest instances of this was the Japanese Canadian internment. At the time, the government justified the internment by claiming that the Japanese Canadians were a threat to their national defense, but evidence suggests that it had nothing to do with security. The government made illogical decisions in response to the mass panic and agitation in British Columbia. To aggravate the situation, Prime Minister William Mackenzie King reacted passively to these decisions, as it was not in his best interests to be involved. Moreover,
Reed, Kevin, Natasha Beeds, and Barbara Filion. Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. Toronto: Pearson Canada, 2011. Print.
In the novel Obasan by Joy Kogawa, Internal Conflict Faced by Obasan, another main character in the story, further proves how the unfortunate events of one's past can negatively influence them for the remainder of their lifetime. Situated in the present, Obasan, who is also Naomi's grandmother, begins to pray while mourning the death of Naomi's parents who had passed during the bombing of Nagasaki. According to the story, "Obasan's eyes are closed as she continues kneeling on the bed, her head bowed. Her lips move imperceptibly as she breathes her prayers” (Kogawa, 270). It is evident by the behavior of Obasan along with the way she is reacting to the memories of her loved ones passing away through such unfortunate means that they greatly
Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan is the story of discrimination, identity, and silence in the Japanese - Canadian community during and after World War II. Kogawa places a special emphasis on silence, speech, as well as the positive and negative aspects of both. In the novel, Kogawa contrasts silence and speech by illustrating through Obasan and Aunt Emily, respectively, while also demonstrating Naomi’s confusion of whether she should be silent or vocal about her feelings and views. Obasan’s silence is representative of her traditional Japanese values while Aunt Emily’s outspoken tendencies represent her message of being a Canadian. Speaking out about issues is an ideology most would associate with western society and
Although the Canadian government reimbursed Japanese Canadians for their suffering during internment, the government did not admit full responsibilities for all the direct and indirect torturous acts it subjected Japanese Canadians to in WWII. About 22, 000 (7) people of Japanese of descent (men, women and children), 75% of whom were Canadian citizens (3.5), were forced from their homes and to live in crowded, small, unhygienic internment cam...
“We hold these truths to be self-evident…”(Weiler). As stated in the Declaration of Independence, all American citizens are “endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Right ”(Weiler) website. However, the United States did not hold true to this promise when removing all Nisei, Japanese Americans, from the pacific coast and transporting them to various relocation centers. In these relocation centers, the Nisei, also referred to as evacuees, were burdened to live in harsh environments, secluded from the outside world. The novel Citizen 13660 describes how the United States stripped the Nisei of their unalienable rights nor other rights entitled to United States citizens.
Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is a riveting about a women who endured three years of social hardships in camp Manzanar. Jeanne Wakatsuki was born on September 26, 1934, in Inglewood, California, to George Ko Wakatsuki and Riku Sugai Wakatsuki. She spent her early childhood in Ocean Park, California, where her father was a fisherman. On December 7, 1941 Jeanne and her family say good bye to her Papa and her brothers as they take off on their sardine boat. The boat promptly returned and a “Fellow from the cannery came running down to the wharf shouting that the Japanese had just bombed Pearl Harbor” (Wakatsuki, 6). That very night Papa went home and burned anything that could trace them back to their Japanese origins paper, documents, and even the flag that he had brought back with him from Hiroshima. Even though Papa tried hard to hide his connections with his Japanese heritage the FBI still arrested him but he didn’t struggle as they took him away he was a man of “tremendous dignity” (Wakatsuki, 8) and instead he led them.
After ten years of legal action and no progress on their fight for reparations, the Japanese American community held public forums to get the entire community involved in the fight for reparations. They worked to educate the Japanese community about the injustices and inhu...
...direct assistance of a male. In Japan’s Comfort Women, the “weakness” of women is seen again. Rape and sexual trade became a power play by individual men all the way up to the highest levels of government. But it was also a story of strength and courage on the part of victimized women. The Pacific War changed many things in Japan and the evolution of those institutions of Japanese society happened rapidly. The changes, however drastic, however gruesome, however sorrowful, were what shaped the history and future of Japan.
Culture of Japan - history, people, traditions, women, beliefs, food, family, social, marriage. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.everyculture.com/Ja-Ma/Japan.html