Obasan
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Joy Kowaga’s Obasan is a novel that uses the device of memory and flashbacks as a means of telling the story of Japanese Canadians who were forced into camps during World War II. The purpose of the government’s policy was to assure that no Japanese would become spies, which included shipping them to abandoned mining camps in deplorable condition, seizing their property, and splitting up families without concern. Naomi, a school teacher, was a young girl when this happened and her story centers around the decimation visited upon Japanese families in Canada during this forced encampment. When Naomi is a child of four, she is molested by Old Man Gower. The presumed rape of Naomi, and its violent implications, are extremely crucial as an underscoring of the theme of the novel—that those who are treated violently and controlled by dominant forces often lose their voice and have their reality fragmented. We see that the forced encampment of Japanese families was akin to raping them. From Obasan, Naomi’s grandmother, who has been turned to stone by the slings and arrows of life, to Emily, her activist aunt who tries to combat the forces imposed upon her, Naomi continually searches for her mother’s voice and her own as she tries to piece together the broken and leftover fragments of her and her family’s life.The isolation, ostracism, racism and splitting up of families created by forced encampment have diminished Naomi’s voice and soul. She is always si
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m alive. In other words, the women tried to sell themselves (their pride, their bodies, their souls) to survive, but the treatment of them by the soldiers would not allow such a bargain—even with such a high price for the Japanese women. As Naomi says of her dream:
The women closest by made a simpering coy gesture with her hands. She touched her hair and wiggled her body slightly—seductively. An almost inaudible whimper or sob was drowned in her chest. She was trying to use the only weapon she had—her desirability. This is what a punished dog feels—this abject longing, wretchedness, fear, and utter helplessness. She lay on the edge of nausea, stretched between hatred and lust…It was too late. There was no hope. The soldiers could not be won. Dread and a deathly loathing cut through the women.
(Kogawa 61)
The politics of the Canadian government during World War II imposed such abject longing, wretchedness, fear and utter helplessness upon the Japanese. The novel is fairly fatalistic because words are considered meaningless, voices are stilled by dominant powers, and there seems to be no recourse for help or assistance. We see this symbolized by Naomi’s near drowning when she realizes the dire nature of her predica
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1518
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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