Racism, Trauma, & Minorities’ Survival --

1. Prey;

2. Obasan Chaps 1-14Kate Liu

Outline

Racism (1): Prey and Reasons for Racism; Racism (2): Japanese Internment; Joy Kogawa & Obasan: General Introd. Obasan

• Examples of Racial Differences and their Consequences

• Not Enemy Aliens; • Noami’s treatment of the Past vs. Her Aunts’

Map

Image source: http://canada.gc.ca/canadiana/map_e.html

Prey by Helen Lee What causes the conflicts between Noh on

the one hand, and I-Bei’s father and grandmother on the other?

What are the dangerous moments in this film and how are they resolved?

What does the title mean? What views of the Korean are expressed by I-Bei’s grandmother?

Prey and Reasons for Racism The whites as predator? Not always. Sometimes

there can be conflicts between the minorities. (e.g. LA Riot)

Images of prey: stolen foods; grocery store broken open; sex.

Dangerous moments: two scenes with the gun; lending the car to Noh;

Reasons for racism against Asians: • Conflicts of interest; (clip 1)• Language • Prejudices• Self-Protection, Racial superiority• The war

Japanese Internment in Canada

The turn of the century: early immigrants (clip 1)

1941, December 7--the bombing of Pearl Harbor

1942--evacuation of Canadian Japanese (Nikkei) from the Pacific Coast--the great mass movement in the history of Canada (Obasan 92-93)--21,000 people moved (clip 2 confiscation; clip 3 relocation)

1949--Nikkei allowed to vote and return to B.C. (clip 4) (Also chap 14 of the novel)

Differences between the States & Canada

U.S.: 1913 -- California Alien Land Law prohibited "aliens ineligible to citizenship" (ie. all Asian immigrants) from owning land or property, but permitted three year leases.

April 1942 -- The assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps were set up, and relocation of Japanese-Americans began. Internment camps were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming.

1944 -- Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt,

1946 -- the last of the camps was closed in March.

Differences between the States and Canada (2)

1. Canada:

-- Dispersal of family members--men sent to road camps in the interior of B.C., sugar beet projects on the Prairies, POW camp in Ontario;

-- not allowed to go back to the West after the War;

-- their properties liquidated.

Differences between the States and Canada (3)U.S.1. 1980 -- President Jimmy Carter signed the

Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians Act – for investigation

2. 1991 – Bush’s letter of apology Canada 1980s--redress movement 1988--formal apology to Nikkei+ $21,000

(Cdn.) to the survivors

Joy Kogawa--Biographical Sketch born in Vancouver, B.C. in 1935 relocated to Slocan and Coaldale,

Alberta during and after WWII Selected Publications: Obasan. 1983. Woman in the Woods. 1985. Naomi's Road. 1986. Itsuka. 1993. The Rain Ascends. 1995.

Awards for Obasan

Books in Canada, First Novel Award.

Canadian Authors Association, Book of the Year Award.

Periodical Distributors of Canada, Best Paperback Fiction Award.

Before Columbus Foundation, The American Book Award.

Obasan--Family TreesGrandpa Nakane

~ 1942

Father(Tadashi Mark)

Mother Nissei: Emily1916-

Sansie: Stephen

1933-

Isamu (Sam)

1889-1972

Ayako(Obasan)

1891-

Kato

Naomi1936-

Issei. Grandma NakaneArrive in Canada 1893;

~ 1945

stillborn

Ref. Chap 4; pp. 17-19; 20

Timeline 1893--Grandpa Nakane arrived in Canada 1941--Mother returned to Japan (clue: p.

20 ) 1942--Vancouver Hastings Park prison 1945--the bombing of Nagasaki 1951--moved to Granton 1954--the first visit to the coulee (p. 2) 1972--narrative present--Uncle’s death

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (1)

1972

|

| 1954

Chap 1: 8/9 1972 --1954 Granton 1951(the

bombing of Nagasaki) — Chap 2: 9/13, 1972 Uncle’s

death Chap 3: back to Obasan’s house,

question about the mother Chap 4: memories of the family

(stone bread) Chap 5: Obasan in the attic,

memory as spider

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (2)

1972

|

|

1941

Chap 6: nightmare Chap 7: Emily’s package—her

last visit and the question if Naomi wants to know “everything”

Chap 8: Obasan lady of the leftovers

Chap 9: starts to remember- from the photo to memories of the house p. 50 —

Chap 10: Momotaro Chap 11: episodes of the white

chicken and Old Man Gower

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (3)

1942 train to Slocan

Chap 12: —separation starts—the mother first;

Chap 13: preparation to leave; Chap 14: bath with Obasan;

Emily’s diary (-110) Chap 15: leaving for Slocan Chap 16: the trip to and arrival

at Slocan, Stephen’s reaction Chap 17: Nomura-Obasan,

Goldilock

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (4)

1942

| 1943

(attend school)

Chap 18: Grandma Nakane’s death, wake and cremation,

Chap 19: Uncle back, questions about the father, Stephen out of his cast

Chap 20: back to school, vegetable garden, Rough Lock Bill, Kenji and the red insect

Chap 21: Naomi’s drowning

Obasan: Time Line & Plot (5)

1943

|

1945

1945 to Alberta Ethridge, and then Granton, Barker Farm--

Chap 22 -- experiences of hospital and deaths (chicken, kitten)

Chap 23 -- bathing Chap 24 -- father back Chap 25 -- prayer before

departure; Chap 26 -- leaving Slocan

Obasan: Racial Differences

Chap 9 – two languages of eyes; Negative consequences: Noami’s quietness in the

episode of Old Man Gower; What is the significance of Old Man Gower

episode? Is Naomi completely defenseless in her experience with Old Man Gower?

What does she feel about herself while being molested and afterwards?

How is Old Man Gower related to racism against the Japanese? Chap 12

Other Influences of Racism

The family dispersed – Noami’s sense of guilt and fear; Noami’s dreams: first one [6] 28-30; second

one: [11] 59-; Her repression of past memories (later)

Questions

How does Naomi start to remember?

What does she remember about the Vancouver house? Her mother? And their family?

The Past in Naomi’s memory:

Chap 9: Photograph • two languages; • two spaces -- home and outside

The house and life in Vancouver• bathing -- burning but relaxing water; Grandma’s

resourcefulness• a collage of images• Mother, father and Stephen Naomi and goldfish• The past—drowning whirlpool, Naomi as a fragment of

fragments

Question 2: the significance of the story Momotaro? Both Canadian and Japanese; Honor and family care; The other fairy-tales:

• Snow White: end of Chap 11• Humpty Dumpty end of Chap 15; • Goldilock chap 17, • All revisions of the fairy-tales show the child’s

way of apprehending racism and displacement

• the chicken episode Chap 11

The Past: Different Treatments How does Naomi describe herself and the two

aunts? How do they each deal with the past? Naomi--sansei--spinster, tense ([2] 7), Obasan--issei—

• language of grief--silence ([3] 14); • ancient; accepting death; • live with the past ([3]11, 14-16; [5] 25-26 ),

Emily--nisei—• energetic, visionary ([2] 8), • “word warrior” (32), “white blood cells” (34) • different from Obasan ([7] 32); from Uncle and

Naomi (35-36); / • Canadian identity--“This is my own, my native land”

Different Generations on Language and Silence “To the issei, honor and dignity is

expressed through silence, the twig bending with the wind….The sansei view silence as a dangerous kind of cooperation with the enemy.” --Joy Kagawa in an interview with Susan Yim

Historical Reconstructions Three ways of dealing with

memories:

• Obasan: ancient woman who stays in history • --can be consumed, • --can make use of the leftovers

• Emily: “The past is the future” p. 42

• Naomi: “Crimes of history . . . Can stay in history” p. 41

Survival Beginning of Chap 15

“We are the hammers and chisels in the hands of would be sculptors, battering the spirit of the sleeping mountain. We are the chips and sand, the fragments of fragments tha fly like arrows from the heart of the rock. We are the silences that speak from stone. We are the despised. . .

We are those pioneers who cleared the bush and the forest with our hands, the gardeners tending and attending the soil with our tenderness . . .

Defense: Not Enemy Alien

Uncle p. 2; (Uncle Sam, Chief Sitting Bull); [3] p. 13;

Emily’s article -- [7] pp. 39-40; Father –before relocation –end of chap 12

p. 70; Their adaptation to new lives.

For next time --

From dis-member to remember to re-member Pay attention to the use of imagery: of animals, fairy tales, fragments, stone and sea.

Imagery of Stone & Sea

What is the significance of the stone imagery?

The bible--“a white stone”--”a new name written”

epigraph--“The word is stone.” Uncle’s stone bread the coulee/ the ocean/ uncle and Chief

Sitting Bull/ the family as a knit blanket (24-25)

References

Japanese Canadian Internment http://www.lib.washington.edu/subject/Canada/internment/intro.html

A History of the Japanese-American Internment http://www.fatherryan.org/hcompsci/

Analysis of two apology letters http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/Article_Detail.asp?Article_ID=3267