Joy Nozomi Kogawa, is a Canadian author and poet of Japanese descent. Born in Vancouver British Columbia on June 6th, 1935, she is a second-generation Japanese who later on lives through the struggles of the Japanese population in Canada. Joy Kogawa lived through all the trials and tribulations that the Japanese-Canadians faced, especially living in British Columbia at the time. Being exposed and suffering through all that, Kogawa became credible with writing a novel that shines a light on the abuse that occurred at the time. Because of her work, Kogawa was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1986. In 2006, she was made a Member of the Order of British Columbia, and in 2010, the Japanese government honored Kogawa with the Order of the Rising Sun for her contribution to the understanding and preservation of Japanese Canadian history.
So, is Kogawa a reliable source for expressing the Japanese minority group and what they faced?
As mentioned above, Kogawa is of Japanese descent and has lived through World War II. These two factors are really important if she was going to write a semi-biography of the past events in Obasan. But why? Well, Japanese-Canadians have faced a lot of discrimination for something they have no control over; the Japanese government. Japan started a world conflict, and Canada was affected by it, but neither the Japanese girls in Canadian schools acquiring knowledge nor the Japanese fisherman seeking food for their children have anything to do with the world conflict of the time. Being part of the Japanese-Canadian group, and experiencing the discrimination that the Japanese received, it was as if Kogawa was dropped in the eye of the tornado to narrate what was going on around her and her community. But also acquiring these two factors allow her to elaborate on the issue to make a compelling and informative story.
Kogawa kept things realistic by learning about the boundaries. For example, she saw how the Canadian government would reprimand the Japanese, and to what extent they would go. Knowing that, she includes it in her narration to shine a light on what the government was doing to the Japenese without her having to mention full stories. This is also the case when Kogawa mentioned the harassment that Naomi faced, by keeping the dirty acts of persecution to a certain extent. Again, this helps Kogawa keep things realistic, and in the same time she can inform the reader about the encounters and torture that the Japanese faced.
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