OBASAN

Just Race?
Racism is an irrational bias, positive or negative, towards people of a racial background. It has been a part of the social fabric since recorded history. In Joy Kogawa’s Obasan (1983), the protagonist, a Japanese-Canadian woman by the name of Naomi, is inadvertently introduced to the atrocities suffered by Canadians of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War. Naomi, now an adult, discovers the hardship and institutional racism that Japanese people faced, whereby they were forbidden “to go anywhere in this wide dominion without a permit” and the government had “requisitioned the Livestock Building…to house 2,000 ‘Japs pending removal’” (Kogawa, 1983, p.95), through a series of letters written by her Aunt Emily to her mother. The letters and conversations between Naomi and Emily reveal the impact of prejudicial policies and discourse on people of all ages including, Stephen, Naomi’s younger brother. The themes of racism, both of the subconscious and overt varieties, highlighted by Kogawa are also prevalent in Angela Aujla’s “Others in Their Own Land: Second Generation South Asian Canadian Women, Racism and the Persistence of Colonial Discourse” which points out the role of government as well as the general public in propagating racial prejudice against South Asian women.
In Obasan, Kogawa provides evidence that shows how Japanese people faced racial discrimination through and after World War II. Aunt Emily’s letters written to her sister, Nesan, who had gone to Japan to see her grandmother, and her painful narrative of the suffering of Japanese-Canadians becomes a defining moment in Naomi’s life. “Pearl Harbor bombing shocked the whole continent” (Kogawa, 1983, p.86). Racial prejudice was widespread and, in fact, was propagated by those in power. The Canadian government “took away the land, the stores, the business, the boats, the houses- everything” (Kogawa, 1983, p.38). Those who ideally would be looked upon as the voice of reason, the lawmakers, were the ones who “broke up our families, told us who we could see, where we could live, what we could do, what time we could leave our houses, censored our letters, and exiled us for no crime” (Kogawa, 1983, p.38). After the Pearl Harbor bombing Japanese-Canadians had their autos and boats seized and their fishing licenses suspended. Countless people were fired from their jobs. Small businesses went out of work. According to Naomi, Aunt Emily’s letters revealed how the war was discriminating between different races. “How these protesters are so much vehement about Canadian born Japanese than they are about German born Germans because we look different” and “There was a letter by a woman saying she didn’t want her own precious daughter to have to go to school with Japanese kids” (Kogawa, 1983, p.88). Aunt Emily felt troubled that everyone treated them poorly. “Once a Jap always a Jap” ( Kogawa, 1983.p. 89) was heard over and over on the radio. She even asked her sister if the Japanese government had arrested her for being Canadian.
Aunt Emily wrote to her sister and described her fears. She said that the situation was very frightening in Canada and everyone was distressed. Canadian citizens who happened to be Japanese faced bias in all walks of life regardless of age, gender or affiliation. Canadian people were attacking Japanese people through newspapers. “Group like Sons of Canada are petitioning Ottawa against Japanese people and the newspapers are printing outright lies. There was picture of a young boy with metal lunch box and it said he was a spy with radio transmitter”. (Kogawa,1983, p.91). “Canada is supposed to be a democracy” (Kogawa, 1983.p.93). The letters written by Naomi’s Aunt Emily clearly reflected and conveyed the pain of the Japanese people and shed a light on how Canadian people had become inhuman during the war. The RCMP searched the houses of Japanese-Canadians without notice and confiscated their cameras, toys and whatever else they wanted. They forced them to leave their houses. Curfews applied only to them and if they were caught after sundown, they were thrown in jail. “Men are forced to work in unheated bunk-cars, no latrines, no water, snow fifteen feet deep, no work, and little food if any” ( Kogawa, 1983, p.93). Under those conditions “other men are afraid to go because they think they’ll be going to certain disaster. If the snow is that deep, there is no work. If there is no work, there is no pay, no one eats. Their families suffer” (Kogawa, 1983, p.93).
The media had taken on the role of a mouthpiece rather than acting as a watchdog against governmental policies. The “Vancouver Daily Province” reported, “Everything is being done to give the Japanese an opportunity to return to their homeland” (Kogawa,1983, p.202). It was reported that, “The intention of the government is that every single Japanese - man, woman and child - shall be removed from Vancouver as speedily as possible” (Kogawa, 1983, p.101). Japanese-Canadians at the time were treated like cattle and forced to move against their will and ordered to work based on the whims of those in power. The process of repatriation and dispersal forced them to think that this was not their home in which they were living for a long time.
According to Naomi, Stephen was upset and he explained the reason to her. He said that in his school “air raid drills” happened, in which, whenever they heard loud alarm sounds, they had to form a line and empty the classroom as quickly as possible and lay flat on the ground to hide from the bombs. A girl in Stephen’s class said that “All the Jap kids at school are going to be sent away and they’re bad and you‘re a Jap” (Kogawa, 1983, p.76). Stephen was hurt and heartbroken by this statement and he asked Naomi if that was true. “No, we’re Canadian” (Kogawa, 1983, p.76) is how their father responds when asked the same question by Naomi. The use of the derogatory term “Jap” by a young child shows the depths to which racial discrimination had spread in Canadian society at the time.
Aunt Emily, in a conversation with Naomi, said, “What a bunch of sheep we were, polite, meek. All the way up the slaughterhouse ramp. Why in a time of war with Germany and Japan would our governments seize the property and homes of Canadian born Canadians but not the homes of German born Germans” (Kogawa, 1983, p.40). Aunt Emily was very angry and frustrated about how Canadian government treated Japanese people during the war. She compared the situation of the Japanese community in America and believed that there treatment at the hands of the Canadian government was far worse than the Americans. “American Japanese were interned as we were in Canada, and sent off to concentration camps, but their property wasn’t liquidated as ours was. How quickly they re-established but we weren’t allowed to return to the west coast. We’ve never recovered from the dispersal policy” (Kogawa, 1983, p.35).
Racism had seeped deep into the Canadian psyche and made the Japanese-Canadians feel like “the water, the weather, the beauty, this paradise - is filled up and overflowing with hatred” (Kogawa, 1983, p.98). People were frightened and there was chaos everywhere. According to Aunt Emily “The war was just an excuse for the racism that was already there”. (Kogawa, 1983, p. 36). War seemed to have triggered a fear of what was different or “the others” and highlighted the negative aspects of human behaviour. This is also evident in Angela Aujla’s “Others in Their Own Land: Second Generation South Asian Canadian Women, Racism and the Persistence of Colonial Discourse” where the South Asian “women remain others in their own land” and “have been ‘mapped’ and inscribed by the dominant culture through racialized discourse and state practices since…the late nineteenth century” (Aujla, 2000, p.172-173). Aunt Emily, in one of her letters, says, “Here the lowly Jap will be bedded down like livestock in stalls” (Kogawa, 1983, p.95). Aujla points to the usage of the term “Paki” as an insult and indicates that “For a…South Asian Canadian to be told “Paki go home” is particularly disturbing because she is told that Canada is not her home” (Aujla, 2000, p.177). Both authors have shed light on the institution of racism and the widespread and deep-rooted prejudice in Canadian society against multiple generations of Japanese and South Asian immigrants. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that ripple effects of racist policies and discourse during the Second World War is being felt to this day.
During the Second World War, government policies, the voice of the media and the attitude of the general public toward people of Japanese descent were prejudicial, discriminatory and oppressive. Ironically, while Canadian soldiers representing “the greatest generation” fought to protect democracy and rid the world of tyrants, their own backyard was being overrun by unfair and prejudicial ideologies. Canadians had adopted a mindset that a majority of the world wanted to eradicate. Most immigrants, Japanese or otherwise, who abandon their birthplaces in search of better lives, adopt Canada, its culture and its history as their own. They want to contribute to Canadian society and want, among other things, to be recognized as Canadians. It remains to be see if a way of thinking about, and treating, “the others”, which developed during a time of crisis, has evolved and matured to be more inclusive and understanding.

References

Aujla, A. (2000). Others in Their Own Land: Second Generation South Asian Canadian Women,
Racism and the Persistence of Colonial Discourse. In A. Medovarski & B. Cranney (Eds.), Canadian Woman Studies: An Introductory Reader (pp. 58-64). Toronto: Inanna Publications and Education Inc.

Kogawa, J. (1983). Obasan. Toronto: Penguin Books.