Obasan

Rating:
Summary: To the people who gave this novel a bad review...
Review: Wow... I can't believe what people said about this book.. I am the worst reader ever.. I hate it with a passion.. But I had to read this book for my Grade 12 Independant Study Project. I was dreading reading it, but i was hooked as soon as i opened it. I truly feel for people when they go through struggles, especially in this case of being separated from their families, and for someone to call this book crap? How would you like to write a novel that is not only "better", but express yourself and share your pain with the world and have people like yourself call it crap.


I actually hate to read but this is one book I am glad i did. It made me look at Canada completely differently, and realize that we are not so perfect after all. I hope we have finally learn from our past for once.

Rating:
Summary: The hard memories¿
Review: I read Obasan once and thought that it was quite a different perspective. I mean, different perspective, by saying that most WWII stories take place in the U.S.A., but Kogawa has brilliantly let the reader rediscover Naomi, the main character's, experiences during the war through the eyes of Naomi. A short version of what happens is Naomi has a close family member that dies and she begins to recap her past that she was hoping to forget.
She grew up in Vancouver Canada. Her mother than decides to go to Japan to attend some other family business, then WWII begins when she is gone. Naomi is then left with her brother Stephen and her father. They are soon relocated to other parts of Canada being criticized about their heritage of being Japanese. Obasan to me is a well-written short novel that really well does explain Naomi's life but almost with a poetic sense. I would have to say the only thing that I was disappointed with was the fact that the book was very slow at the beginning and a bit confusing but eventually comes together towards the end.

Rating:
Summary: a beautiful and emotional book
Review: Joy Kogawa explained very clearly what happened to the Japanese people in Canada during WW 2. The story was very well, and you could still follow all the things that happened to the people. Everything becomes very clear.
The story is told through the eyes of Naomi Nakane, the main character, who wants to find out what happened to the past, the time when the Japanese people were haunted down. She kind of begins telling the story from when she was 5 and it all started. Her mother had to leave Canada and go to Japan. Until she was an adult, Naomi didn't find out why her mom never came back and why she never got the letters she wrote.
Obasan is Naomi's aunt who practically raised her (since age five). Obasan was always silent and never told Naomi about the past. Naomi gest a package from her other aunt Emily with all kinds of information about what happened in the past. So she finds out all the details.

Rating:
Summary: Lulled me to sleep
Review: OBASAN by Joy Kogawa

Joy Kogawa uses a blend of techniques in her debut novel, OBASAN, to tell the story of the Japanese Canadians and their years in Canada during and following WWII. The winner of the Books In Canada "First Novel" Award and the winner of the Canadian Authors' "Association Book Of The Year Award", it is told through the eyes of a Japanese Canadian girl, only five years old at the start of WW II. OBASAN is told in flashbacks as Naomi Nakane looks back as an adult, finding out what really happened to her family and their loved ones during this horrible time in history.

Naomi and her brother Stephen were raised for the most part by their uncle and aunt, because their parents were not able to care for them during and after the years following WWII. Naomi's mother leaves for a visit to Japan shortly before Japan enters WWII with the United States, and is never seen or heard from by Naomi or her brother again. The young Naomi recalls letters going unanswered, never knowing whether her mother has ever received these notes or is too busy to even care about her children left in Canada. Their father remains in Canada with them, but becomes ill and is taken away during the war, spending most of his time in hospitals. Their contact with him is intermittent. Uncle Isamu and "Obasan" are asked to take care of the two children in the event anything happens to the Nakanes, and they raise them, not having any children of their own. They become a family unit, and as one reads the book, it is obvious that young Naomi finds nothing too unusual in this setup, as hardships keep them focused on one thing only: survival.

The book starts with Naomi hearing news that her Uncle has passed on, and she is forced to return to the home of Obasan, which brings back a rush of memories that she had preferred to keep suppressed. Told in flashbacks, letters, and poetry, Naomi's story is slowly told. Because she was so young, Naomi herself was not fully aware of what was happening during WWII. All she knew was that their family had to move several times, were restricted to where they could show their faces, and were ostracized and made to suffer because they were Japanese. It didn't matter that she and her brother were born in Canada. Being Japanese had stripped them of all rights that belonged to them as Canadian citizens.

OBASAN is based on the author's own experiences in Canada during WWII, and reading OBASAN I could feel a lot of her anguish coming through the pages. I was very interested in reading about the Japanese Canadians plight during WWII. I myself am Japanese American whose own father and family were sent to the camps in California. I was astonished to read that a similar situation had occurred in Canada, and it was one factor that kept me interested in the book. On the other hand, I did not quite like the way this story was told, and had a hard time getting through the entire book. It was not an easy read. What motivated me to finish the book was because I wanted to find out what happened to Naomi and her family, and what happened to her mother. The mystery to this is not revealed until the very end, and it was a very tragic ending to an altogether tragic book. There is no happy ending, but a lot of unanswered questions, including why such an event could have ever happened in a modern democratic society. Although I couldn't say this was a "Must-read", it is definitely a chapter in history that everyone should be aware of, regardless of race or nationality. This reader gives OBASAN 3.5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Kogawa's Obasan
Review: Obasan is a fictional account of what actions the Canadian government took to control Japanese-Canadians during WWII. Kogawa tells an undeniably historical story about the internment of Japanese-Canadians and its effect on families. She chronicles the journey of a young Japanese-Canadian as she confronts and accepts her past. Kogawa uses a unique point of view, extended metaphors, and official as well as personal documents and letters to tell her story.

Obasan is told through the eyes of Naomi Nakane, a Canadian-born Japanese woman. The story is often hard to understand because it is told from 36-year old Naomi through flashbacks. Throughout her life Naomi has tried hard to forget about her painful past, but her strong-willed Aunt Emily helps her remember. Thus Kogawa starts her use of flashbacks, skipping around the years of Naomi's life often making it hard to piece her life together. Kogawa tells much of Naomi's story from the eyes of a young child, which helps the reader see the internment of Japanese-Canadians more truthfully.

Kogawa also uses extended metaphors throughout her novel. One example is her continual comparison of Japanese-Canadians to birds. The birds in the book are always weak, helpless, and at the mercy of others. By her use of this metaphor, Kogawa is saying that the Japanese-Canadians are controlled by and at the hands of white Canadians. Another more horrific metaphor she uses to portray the same belief is in comparing the treatment of the Japanese in Canada to young Naomi being raped as a child. The rape and molestation of Naomi when she was four-years old permeates the entire book. It illuminates Kogawa's belief that the Japanese-Canadians were being horribly taken advantage of by their own government during and after WWII.

Finally, Kogawa uses official and personal documents to give validity to Obasan. She first uses newspaper clippings and government documents given to Naomi from Aunt Emily. These clippings helped Naomi to leave behind her indifferent attitude to embrace an interested and involved attitude toward the wartime treatment of Japanese-Canadians. However, the most influential factor that changed Naomi's attitude was a letter from her grandmother, who went with Naomi's mother before the war to Japan. Naomi has always been obsessed about finding out what has happened to her mother because she has not had any corrospondance with her for years. However, the letter reveals everything, and it is disclosed that her mother was a victim of the atomic bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan.

Obasan is a beautifully written book that tells the story of a woman coming to terms with a painful and degrading past. It also informs readers of an event that few know happened, but nearly parallels the Holocaust of the Jews in Europe. This book is great for anyone interested in history, the Japanese culture, and the trends that human nature follows in treating other people.

Rating:
Summary: To the reviewer who gave one star...
Review: Quoting an idiot:

"This book was filled with mindless killings and no plot what-so-ever. I only read this for English class, god, it was boring. I was getting so tired of it, I just starting skimming through it halfway through. Please, give me a break. How can this be interesting, it's so lame. Stephen is the only somewhat interesting character, Naomi, I liked her the best, but she was kinda boring, Obasan just sat there and repeated, "Everyone Someday dies!" Yah, who cares, we know that already. Please, if you want to read a good book, read Buffy the Vampire Slayer books: Wisdom Of War and These Our Actors. These Our Actors has flashbacks just like this book, only interesting. And please people, don't read this book, it's not worth it, unless your 50 year old person that has too much time on your hands. This [was bad]!" End Quote.

I have to start this by saying, you *idiot*~! What are you talking about?? "Mindless killings" thats what happens in wars, this book is about what happened to real people, and it is pretty much an autobiography itself, lots of what happened the author experienced herself. And saying there is no plot, blah, theres a reason you read it for english, its by a canadian author and its going to be titled classic even if it isn't already. If you are reading this in english don't expect it to be something like "buffy the vampire slayer" what grade are you in? One? I had to read it for english too, and look i gotta write about 5 essays about it. Next time you review, do it anonymously or something, you're making canadians look bad.

Rating:
Summary: A Page In History Forgotten
Review: Set in rustic Canada during WW2, "Obasan" is a look into the life of Naomi Kakane, a Japanese Canadian torn between her background and a society which was once so fair and inclusive but which has now turned on her and her race due to a world conflict for which they are not responsible and in which they have no say. But since the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor, all Canadian Japanese are lumped in the same category as traitors, therefore outcasts.

"Obasan" is the only fictional account of the historical experience of the Japanese Canadians and the unjust internment they suffered. Published in 1981, the book put the spotlight on several national issues, including racial injustice and discrimination, and may have influenced former Prime Minister Mulroney's guarantee for reformation towards Japanese Canadians in 1984. It was a big step in bringing about some reconciliation and healing of wounds that had been left open and untended for too long.

To begin with, these Japanese were forced to sacrifice many possessions such as property and housing due to lack of trust, as revealed in the letters which Naomi reads in Chapter 14, which detail what the government did to her people. They were shipped on trains, splitting their families apart to extremely small housing where they were forced to live. Eventually they were shipped again to even smaller housing on beet farms, where they would labor, harvesting sugar beets. It was a bleak eistence for those years and an uncertain one, for they no longer had any rights as citizens and didn't know where they'd be tomorrow or the next day. In Chapter 28, Naomi was sent to live at a deserted farmhouse where she had to work the fields with her family, except for her mother, who had left back to Japan to look after her own mother. Her father had died, she later learned, so she was left motherless and fatherless, living with her brother and aunt. The pitiful thing was of course the unfair treatment of these people, but the other tragedy was also that some of them either died or disappeared because of it.

They were outcasts for a long portion of time, not only during the time they were physically transported, but for years after the war when they had no one's trust; derogatory words like "Japs" and "gooks" were used by some people. This created scars that would always remain. To this day, there are still some in the elderly generation who look back on those times with sadness and discomfort.

In this novel, Joy Kogawa creates an intense mental picture of the cruelty and anguish these completely innocent people were put through, simply due to their background and heritage. One certainly can sympathize and almost begin to feel what they must have gone through. Kogawa depicts the story of the Nakanes family well, and provides a well-deserved look at a history forgotten.

David Rehak
author of "A Young Girl's Crimes"

Rating:
Summary: Obasan
Review: This book was filled with mindless killings and no plot what-so-ever. I only read this for English class, god, it was boring. I was getting so tired of it, I just starting skimming through it halfway through. Please, give me a break. How can this be interesting, it's so lame. Stephen is the only somewhat interesting character, Naomi, I liked her the best, but she was kinda boring, Obasan just sat there and repeated, "Everyone Someday dies!" Yah, who cares, we know that already. Please, if you want to read a good book, read Buffy the Vampire Slayer books: Wisdom Of War and These Our Actors. These Our Actors has flashbacks just like this book, only interesting. And please people, don't read this book, it's not worth it, unless your 50 year old person that has too much time on your hands. This [was bad]!

Rating:
Summary: a poignant and profound book
Review: This is a great book, and I loved it. This surprised me because it is written in a style that is very unusual, or at least very different from what I've read in the past. It's a first-hand account that nearly reaches the level of stream-of-consciousness.
It's also written very lyrically. Obasan's words and sentences were constructed so beautifully that I don't think it can really be classified as prose. I really don't like poetry, but it was really nice to read a book so well written.
The plot line can be hard to follow at times, but the effort definitely pays off. I'm not even sure that the plot is the point of the book; this is more of a story of pain, suffering, love, and family ties through persecution. It is these themes that link the book together.
The Japanese response to tragedy is so completely and utterly unlike my own that I was fascinated. My very American upbringing makes this book a total cultural experience for me.
I deal with my problems by talking them over with my friends. According to Obasan, the Japanese deal with problems through silence. Which is better? No one can judge that, but before this I didn't even know that there was a real alternative because it was beyond my realm of experience.
Emotions are really the point of the story, but the plot was also very strong. Obasan deals with the experiences of the Japanese people in Canada during WWII. They were persecuted, but in an entirely different way than in the US. Rather than internment, the Canadian government followed a policy of dispersal.
I really enjoyed reading this book. It has the combination of great writing and strong plotline. What's more, it talks about universal issues faced by every member of the human race: separation, anguish, despair, hope, and love. Through its portrayal of the Nakane family, the reader learns nearly as much about him/herself as he/she learns about the story.

Rating:
Summary: Quick Escape
Review: This was a well-written book about the memories of a little Canadian girl of Japanese origin interned during World War II. The girl, as an adult, comes to terms with what happened by reviewing her aunt's documentation of the destruction of their family as she sits in the home of the woman who raised her after the death of her uncle. It is a quick read chock full of emotion and prejudice. I recommend it.