Racism And Discrimination In Obasan By Bob Kogawa

Racism and Compare and Contrast Examples Racism is one of the main themes in the novel Obasan, it had a powerful impact that shaped the life of Naomi, and her family. The novel shows the discrimination towards the Japanese Canadians by the Canadian government, including their forced internment during World War II and the confiscation of their property. The novel also shows examples of the impact of racism on the larger community, and how it creates division and mistrust between different groups. The novel portrays how racism can sustain itself through generations, as Naomi struggles to come to terms with the past. The term "yellow peril" came up several times in the novel and is an important theme that is used to describe the racism and discrimination

She describes a news article that came out when she was just a kid which is a good example of this. “We were defined and identified by the way we were seen. A newspaper in B.C. headlined: ‘They are a stench in the nostrils of the people of Canada.’ We were therefore relegated to the cesspools” (Kogawa 102). If anything remotely close to that was released today it would be a hate crime and they would be “cancelled.” She is saying that the Japanese Canadian community was defined and labelled by the negative opinions and perceptions of Canadian society. The newspaper headline showed the prejudice and hostility they faced. At one point she was reading her aunt Emily's journal and it said “They wouldn't let me or any ‘Jap females’ into the men's building. There are constables at the doors ‘to prevent further propagation of the species’, it said in the newspaper” (Kogawa 86). That shows the lengths that the Canadians went through to try to ensure the depopulation of the Japanese Canadians. At one point in the novel, she goes on to explain the difference between the internment of the Japanese Canadian and the Japanese Americans. "I hate to admit it,’ she said, ‘but for all we hear about the States, Canada's capacity for racism seems even worse.’ ‘Worse?’ ‘The American Japanese were interned as we were in Canada, and sent off to concentration camps, but their property wasn't

It gives a good demonstration of how the kids are mostly a product of their parents. “The girl with the long ringlets who sits in front of Stephen said to him, ‘All the Jap kids at school are going to be sent away and they're bad and you're a Jap.’ And so, Stephen tells me, am I. ‘Are we?’ I ask Father. ‘No,’ Father says. ‘We're Canadian.’ It is a riddle, Stephen tells me. We are both the enemy and not the enemy” (Kogawa 63). This is the first time Stephen had encountered racism on a personal level so I imagine it was fairly eye-opening for him which explains his confusion. After he asks if they were the enemy and his father responds by assuring him they were Canadian and says they are both the enemy and not the enemy. This shows how they are both accepted and rejected based on their ethnicity. When her father said "It is a riddle" it helps to highlight the contradiction and complexity of their identity as Japanese