Obasan Character Analysis

How the Style of “Defense” Impacts the World
During the year of 1941, Japan drafted America into the second world war and as a result the nations of Canada and the United States reacted in a such a way that caused a barrier between the citizens of Japanese descent and whites which still remains in effect of today. The initial reaction of the nations was to exile a whopping 22,000 Canadian Citizens into internment camps without a verifiable trial or reason yet it was justified because it was a form of national defense. In Joy Kogawa’s historical fiction Obasan, the author explores the life of a fictional character named Naomi through the recollections of memories as this character goes through the phases of discrimination before, during, and

Early in the novel, it is mentioned that there is a neighbor referred to as “Old Man Gower” and he is an unjust man. The kids at the school would bully her brother just based on his ethnicity. The children who say these things are often just repeating what they hear at home furthermore meaning that their parents clearly teach or preach racism in their household. Naomi mentions that one day her brother came home from school with his glasses broken and is told that all of the “Jap kids” are going to be taken away and they are inherently “bad” leading Stephen to believe that he and Naomi are but their father disagrees resulting in the new conception that “It is a riddle… We are both the enemy and not the enemy” (Kogawa 84); The idea that it is unclear of what their ethnicity is strains the family and poses the universal question of “who am I?” and it becomes an internal conflict with each character who faces the discrimination and racism because of the color of their skin. It is noted that Stephen pushes away his Japanese culture away and is rather repelled by any association of the culture to the point he puts up a facade to hide any hint that he could be Japanese as a result of the numerous conflicts that are encountered in throughout the war period. Similarly, McGonegal comments,”For while Japanese Canadians (particularly issei but also nisei) have a strong sense of the anteriority of the future, Kogawa suggests that they often have disjunct views on what the future looks like and how it ought to be achieved.” (“The Future of Racial Memory: Forgiveness, Reconciliation, and Redress in Joy Kogawa's Obasan and Itsuka”) which signify that Japanese Americans and Canadians are aware that nothing will be truly be the same, and there will always be the hatred that was once there so it is ultimately up to