<!-- dateline -->VANCOUVER<!-- /dateline --> -- Canadian writer Joy Kogawa says she's shocked that her childhood home has been saved from demolition despite a significant shortfall in funds raised to restore it.
"I thought miracles happen and dreams come true and that is totally amazing," she said.
<!-- /Summary -->The house was featured in Ms. Kogawa's acclaimed autobiographical novel Obasan and has been the focus of a national campaign by the Land Conservancy.
Although the group has managed to raise only $230,000, it announced yesterday that it will go ahead and purchase the house by borrowing money if necessary, spokesman Bill Turner said.
The organization wants the house to remain as a reminder of what Canadians of Japanese heritage endured in the early 1940s.