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Racism And Discrimination In Obasan By Bob Kogawa

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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 …show more content…

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 …show more content…

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

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She also knows who is responsible for this, Canadian politicians, and she wants them to be punished. Her repeated mentioning of the RCMP, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, in relation to the internment and the implementation of restrictions (Kogawa 97- 130) reiterates the notion of the awareness that the government does not thunk of Japanese Canadians as equals. Another aspect the novel emphasises is the separation of families. The reader follows Naomi, Stephen, Uncle Sam and Obasan to the ghost town of Slocan City.

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So she goes on to lead the reader that it wouldn't make sense for them to do the same thing to colored Canadians. Which is that it wouldn't make sense to think that having a person who isn't a colored Canadian write about colored Canadians and say it suffices as a voice for them. Cary however probably knew that her logical reasoning would not be enough since it was the very human and personal topic of voice.

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Kogawa makes it clear to the novel’s readers that this question must be asked when it comes to the actions the Canadian government undertook: with all of the horrible events that took place in these internment camps in Slocan and other Canadian towns, was the pain and the suffering worth it over a war? Given the fact that Obasan is a semi-autobiographical work, it transpires in the minds of readers that these unfortunate, unthinkable actions were very likely ones Joy Kogawa had to deal with in her own life, when her own family was interned at Slocan in British Columbia. Through this, and with how racism and prejudice are rarely associated at all with Canada as a nation, it truly begs the question of whether or not even implicit racism can be found in any country or region, and just how those attitudes can seethe in any society at any given point of time, particularly if a major event provokes such a

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Her desire to only interact with the culture for a story to tell others shows the lack of interest the general public has in understanding communities they are not a part of. This contributes to the formation of negative stereotypes, as people do not take the time to see if stereotypes are accurate, instead allowing derogatory stereotypes define entire

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The elder Japanese-Canadians had lost mostly everything they had worked for their whole lives and they didn’t have enough time to start fresh. Many Japanese- Canadians had their education ruined and couldn’t afford to go to any university or college. Many of them had to earn money to support their family. Many had gone thorough psychological

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