Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House - joy kogawa

Georgia Straight: Joy Kogawa House is "BEST NEW PLACE TO GET WRITING DONE "

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:42:26 -0700

Joy Kogawa House is:

BEST NEW PLACE TO

GET WRITING DONE

Pictures: Joy and brother Tim and Kogawa House circa 1944, chery tree and house 2007, Joy Kogawa and children from Thomsett Elementary School, Joy Kogawa and house photo by Dan Toulget/Vancouver Courier, Joy & brother Tim with school friends circa 1944

When I joined the "Save Kogawa House" campaign in September 2005, I just knew it was something that had to be done. Three years later we now have our first writer-in-residence program with the arrival of Madeleine Thien and a grant from the Canada Council.

The House was purchased by The Land Conservancy of BC in May 2006, and we have since had readings by Ruth Ozeki, Shaena Lambert, Sharon Butala, Heidi Greco, Marion Quednau, and Vancouver’s poet laureate George McWhirter, as well as Joy Kogawa herself. We have also had musical performances by opera soprano Heather Pawsey, flautist Kathryn Cernauskas and pianist Rachel Iwaasa.

It's an amazing story that this house has survived not only the WW2 Internment of its previous owners, but also rising real estate prices and the threat of demolition. It was a vision that we had to create a home for writers, to both recognize the accomplishments and life of Joy Kogawa, as well as to provide a place for them to hone their craft, and hopefully inspire them to their own greatness.

Check out page 77 of the Sept 18-25 / 2008 issue of the Georgia Straight. Kevin Chong writes that "Madeleine Thine will take up residence at a retreat dedicated to Joy Kogawa"

Writers work against city's shifting backdrop

Historic Joy Kogawa House

1450 West 64th Avenue

Now that Joy Kogawa’s childhood home has been purchased and saved from the wrecking ball after years of struggle, it’s set to become a writer’s retreat for visiting authors, starting in 2009. (The first author to arrive in the house, located in leafy, sleepy Marpole, will be Madeleine Thien.) Hopefully, the house, which celebrates the contributions of one of B.C.’s best-known authors while reminding us of a regrettable episode in our nation’s history—the internment of Japanese Canadians during World War II—will inspire new books in the years to come. More info is available at www.kogawahouse.com/ .

Page 77

Visit Joy Kogawa at the Royal BC Museum - take a picture with her!

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:47:35 -0700

Where is Joy Kogawa in this picture?

This is the interactive photo display in front of the Royal BC Museum, in Victoria BC, for the "Free Spirit" exhibition celebrating the 150th Anniversary of British Columbia. These pictures are from "The Party" display which features 150 of BC's most fascinating people.

The display also features Japanese-Canadian David Suzuki and other famous authors such as Jane Rule, Douglas Coupland, PK Page and Dorothy Livesay.

Check out the website and find Joy and David Suzuki in:

http://www.freespiritbc.ca/virtualexhibition/theparty.aspx

hint: you can stand behind Joy, as Kogawa House committee member Deb Martin is doing. This picture of Joy was taken by Kogawa House committee members Deb and Todd Wong- who is is also featured in "The Party" exhibit.

The exhibition opened in March, Deb and I went to visit "Joy" in April: read our story: Traveling to "The Party" at BC Royal Museum

Globe & Mail: 'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance' - story about Joy Kogawa's childhood home and beloved cherry t

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:36:02 -0700

Globe & Mail: 'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance' - story about Joy Kogawa's childhood home and beloved cherry tree

1) Joy and Timothy @ Kogawa House circa 1939 2) Joy and Timothy with friends circ 1939 3) Rev. Tim Nakayama, Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa and Todd Wong May 2005, at the Obasan Launch for One Book One Vancouver, Vancouver Public Library.

This is truly a miracle story. I remember in the early 1980's shelving "Obasan" on book shelves while I worked at the Vancouver Public Library. Just the existence of the book spoke to me about Asian-Canadian history and identity. I was inspired to learn more about Japanese-Canadian history as part of my own Asian-Canadian history, as part of my own identity as a Canadian.

The very first time I met Joy Kogawa was at Expo 86. She gave a reading, and read a poem titled "Oh Canada," about the sorry and loss of the internment. I introduced myself to her friend Roy Miki and he gave me Joy'
s copy of the poem.

Many years later, I am honoured to call these great Canadians as friends. It is a pleasure to be president of the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society, with so many good-hearted people on our board.

As I told CBC arts reporter Paul Grant, back in 2005 when we had just re-started the Save Kogawa House campaign, "Saving the house is a calling. It's something that has to be done.

Today, we have a literary and historic landmark for not only the City of Vancouver, but for all Canadians. And we still have work to do. We must restore the house to its 1942 qualities when Joy and her brother Tim lived in the house, before they were sent away to the internment camps and beet farms. We must build a writer's-in-residence program for this house.

'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance'

Celebrated author Joy Kogawa returns to the house her family lost during their wartime internment and revels in its future

ROD MICKLEBURGH

From Friday's Globe and Mail

April 25, 2008 at 5:18 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — As a girl, Joy Nakayama would write from her family's miserable shack in the Alberta sugar beet fields to the new occupants of the comfortable Vancouver home seized from her family during the wartime internment of Japanese Canadians.

She begged the owners for a chance to get the house back. They never replied.

More than 60 years later, in a charming circle of history, Ms. Nakayama, better known as the celebrated writer Joy Kogawa, stood once more in her childhood home this week, eager to guide a visitor through its emotional past.

From her former bedroom window, she gazed again at the famous backyard cherry tree that forms the heart of her memories and so much of her writing.

"It's the tree, more than anything else, that grips me," Ms. Kogawa said. "It's as if it has a message written upon it, that everything we've gone through in life is known. ... When it dies, I feel I will die."

Split in the middle, oozing sap, with many of its limbs missing, the gnarled, ailing tree is nonetheless draped in a glorious display of springtime blossoms, as much a miracle of survival as the house itself.

The modest bungalow in the city's now fashionable Marpole district was just days from destruction when a last-minute, anonymous donation of $500,000 allowed The Land Conservancy to buy it, with hopes of establishing a writers' residence and a tribute to Ms. Kogawa and her award-winning novel Obasan, about the tragedy of internment.

The donor's identity is to be disclosed at a ceremony this afternoon. But The Globe and Mail has learned that the improbably large sum came from Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth, sister of former Ontario lieutenant-governor Henry Jackman.

"Why? Because I have a tremendous fondness for Joy Kogawa," Ms. Ruth explained, adding with a modest chuckle: "And also because of the tax incentives of the Harper government. No capital gains on stock earnings given to charity."

Internment was a shameful act, she said. "I can remember reading Obasan and weeping at the pain."

Yet, Ms. Ruth said, Ms. Kogawa retains a deep sense of faith in humanity, that reconciliation and hope are still possible, even in the face of things that are terrible.

Writers residing in the house in the future will have to deal with that, Ms. Ruth said. "How can you sit at a desk and look out at that cherry tree and not think from whence all that came?"

As for Ms. Kogawa, the six-year-old who once dangled upside down from the tree's low branches is now grey-haired and 72, albeit with undiminished energy and flashing eyes.

She can scarcely comprehend the astounding chain of events that has brought her childhood refuge back after so many years, particularly on a street where many residences were torn down long ago in favour of larger, more expensive dwellings.

"I had given up. I'd gone to the realtors. I pleaded and begged not to let it go. I offered to write books for them, to name characters after their children. It all fell on deaf ears."

Now, she marvelled, "such a strange thing has happened here. It's all a bit surreal, dream-like. I don't know even how to describe it. It's like some movie script, this sense of wonder and delight."

During her tour of the house, Ms. Kogawa indicated how much has changed over the years. New walls, doors and windows replaced, closets ripped out.

"My mother's piano was right there," she said, gesturing toward an empty corner of the living room. "The gramophone was over there, and that's where the goldfish

bowl stood."

She headed into the basement. Suddenly, there were gasps of surprise.

"There they are! The windows and the doors!" She pointed to a pair of fine French doors and old window frames, carefully stacked along a wall. "And there's some of the cedar planks that my father put in. Wouldn't it be great if things could be brought back to the way they were?"

Ms. Kogawa brought back a few family possessions that survived internment. Her brother's toy cars, her mother's Japanese tea set, tattered picture books. "These are the pictures I grew up with." And an old apple crate. "That was saved, because it was useful when we had to move," she said, without bitterness.

It was a good day.

"The story of this house has come to a wonderful place, like a new beginning," she said, groping to find just the right words.

"It had one birth. It lived its life, and then, instead of dying, it's been given a second chance. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing to have.

"It's going to live again. It will breathe. It will bring life to people. It will bring reconciliation. Those are the things this house has been called to do."

A Place of Compassion: Joy Kogawa's Dream Vancouver statement

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:53:09 -0700

A Place of Compassion:
Joy Kogawa's Dream Vancouver statement

Joy Kogawa holds up her arms to embrace and support everything she loves in the world
- photo Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan, has written A Place of Compassion for her submission to the Dream Vancouver conference and website, organized by Think City. While Joy will not be attending the conference, I will be as one of the directors of the Joy Kogawa House Society.

Dream Vancouver is an all-day conference which will take participants from their dreams about Vancouver to a possible agenda for change. The conference will be facilitated by Bliss Browne, internationally-renowned speaker and president of Imagine Chicago. Former City of Vancouver Co-Director of Current Planning Larry Beasley is key note speaker. Ms. Browne will then facilitate a discussion-based session which will take participants through a series of questions designed to bring them to a collective vision of what the city could be.

To attend you must register, click here.

Registration: 9:30 am - 10:00 am
Conference: 10:00 am - 3:30 pm
Reception: 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

Location: Jewish Community Centre, 950 W. 41st Avenue, Vancouver (at Oak Street).

- photo courtesy Joy Kogawa

Is Joy a Vancouver dreamer? She was born in Vancouver in 1935. During WW2 in 1942, when she was 6 years old, her family was removed from Vancouver and sent to internment camps for Japanese-Canadians. She forever dreamed about returning to the the house in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, even after the Canadian government confiscated the property of the Japanese-Canadian internment victims, and resettled them to work as labourers on Alberta beet farms. She lives mostly in Toronto but returns to Vancouver often, and has great hopes for Vancouver as a city, and as a cultural entity.

Joy Kogawa and her brother Rev. Timothy Nakayama, at the opening event for Obasan, the 2005 choice for One Book One Vancouver at the Vancouver Public Library - photo Todd Wong

Joy is acknowledged as one of Canada's most important writers in the 20th Century for her ground breaking novel Obasan - a story about the impact of the internment on the Japanese Canadian community. Since May 2005, when I met Joy, at the first Obasan event for One Book, One Vancouver event at the Vancouver Public Library, our developing friendship was been a wild ride as I became a key player on the Save Kogawa House committee (See my articles on Joy Kogawa & Kogawa House).

I have witnessed Joy speak in numerous circumstances and she always seems to have an unwavering position that calls for peace and compassion in so many circumstances. It embraces her anti-war stance, the Japanese-Canadian redress, South African apartheid, the Chinese-Canadian head tax issue, Japanese atrocities against China in WW2, the history of her ancestor's home of Okinawa, the naming of the 401 Burrard building after Howard Green. Joy doesn't look to find blame for right or wrong, she looks to find resolution.

Joy Kogawa and Todd Wong at the 2006 Canadian Club Vancouver's annual Order of Canada / Flag Day luncheon. Joy was key note speaker, and Todd was one of the event organizers - photo Deb Martin

Vancouver has long had a reputation for a history with peace activism. This is part of our social-cultural make up, and can be embodied through social policy initiatives. Perhaps it has become such because so many people have come to Vancouver after leaving war, destruction, starvation, revolution, upheaval in their home lands.

Joy has given Dream Vancouver a very apt and fitting dream statement to find reconciliation and understanding "within and between the faiths, between rich and poor, among immigrant groups, in established neighbourhoods, in the Downtown Eastside, among those who are still suffering from unresolved injustices of the near and distant past can come to healing and hope and inner freedom."

Joy Kogawa and children from Tomsett Elementary School in Richmond. After seeing the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensembles production of "Naomi's Road", the children were inspired to helps save Kogawa House from demolition. Joy and the children stand in front of the house for their own private tour and reading event. - photo Joan Young

On November 10th, come to the 2nd open house event at Kogawa House.
Sunday, 3-5pm. 1450 West 64th Ave. (just East of Granville St.)
Admission is by donation. Proceeds go to restoring historic Joy Kogawa House, now owned by The Land Conservancy of BC.

A Place of Compassion

Posted October 15th, 2007 in Dreamers

Joy Kogawa, poet and novelist: The dream I have for this west-coast city on the edge of the peaceable ocean is the dream I have for the world - a dream of peace. What better time than this to abolish war as we face our common planetary fate?

We have choices - to continue blithely on our way, fighting and devouring one another for the rest of our dwindling days, or we can individually and collectively lay down our weapons and practice the ways of truth and reconciliation, cooperation and peace.

In a city where east-west faces and races meet and mix, where cultures both clash and blend, the ways of peace can be cultivated, watered, nurtured and the seeds of that action can fly to the farthest corners of our hearts and the world.

As a Japanese Canadian, I have welcomed conversations with two granddaughters of Howard Green, the politician whose public words against us during the Second World War were dreaded in our community. If they can seek to make peace with us on behalf of the grandfather they loved, ought we not to walk with them? What an opportunity for peace making and for walking on.

And ought we not, as Canadian descendants from Japan, to stand with those Canadian descendants of China, who seek a fulsome parliamentary acknowledgment from the country of our ancestors for the horrors their ancestors faced in the Rape of Nanking? Or is it our choice to turn aside and say, "These are no concerns of ours." I believe that the morally appropriate action is to respond to those who suffer and who call our names.

But it is not for me to say what is right for anyone else. We are each required to struggle with our own conscience and to respond to the many voices that call us.

read here: for the rest of Joy's statement

Ryukoku Sogo Gakuen

Wed, 08 Aug 2007 16:02:02 -0700

Ryukoku students visit Kogawa House in July 2007

Ryukoku Summer Students Visit Kogawa House

A group of 19 enthusiastic Japanese high school students and their teachers visited historic Joy Kogawa House early on the morning of Thursday, July 26, 2007. Members of the group attend school in various parts of Japan and came together in Vancouver to participate in Ryukoku Sogo Gakuen, a three-week educational program out of Steveston Buddhist Temple that promotes religious, cultural, and international understanding. The Ryukoku Summer English program has been in operation every summer for the past five years.

This year, an important aspect of the curriculum was to create some understanding and appreciation of the Japanese experience in British Columbia. As part of their preparation for their visit to Canada, students were required to read Joy Kogawa’s story of the internment, Naomi’s Road, as well as do some research about the author. The culmination of their learning was the exciting tour of the author’s childhood home during their visit to Vancouver.

Tamsin Baker, regional manager of The Land Conservancy of BC’s Lower Mainland office, was present at the house to welcome the group. Tamsin showed the students photos of the house during various times in the past and explained the history of the house and plans for its future. The highlight of the morning came when Joy herself arrived at the house, accompanied by David Kogawa and their son, Gordon. Her arrival was a completely unexpected surprise. The students and teachers were absolutely thrilled to meet Joy in person and gave her a very enthusiastic welcome. Everyone wanted to have a picture taken with Joy.

The Ryukoku School wishes to thank Joy Kogawa, David Kogawa, and Tamsin Baker for taking the time to make their visit to the house very meaningful and for helping to create wonderful memories for the students to take back to Japan.

—Posted on behalf of Joan Young

Cherry tree blossoms at Kogawa House

Wed, 09 May 2007 23:23:42 -0700

Cherry Blossoms at Kogawa House

Joy Kogawa outside Kogawa House in Marpole 2005. "Photo-Dan Toulgoet, Vancouver Courier" - used by permission

The cherry blossoms have been out everywhere in Vancouver since late March. In mid-April I was driving through Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, when I thought I should go visit Joy Kogawa's childhood home at 1450 West 64th Ave.

It had been back the summer of 2005, when I had received an e-mail from Ann-Marie Metten that Joy Kogawa's beloved cherry tree was diseased and dying. She and a group that included then Vancouver city councillor Jim Green, gathered grafts from the cherry tree to try to preserve it for future incarnations - because it was feared that the owner would not give up the house.

This was the house that the Save Kogawa House Committee, which I was part of, had worked so hard to save from demolition, when the owner decided to draw up plans to demolish the house and build a new one. It was an intensive awareness campaign from September to December when The Land Conservancy of BC decided to step in and take on this project, deeming it a worthy Vancouver landmark of cultural and historical importance. Then it was from December until May, as we tried to raise funds to save the house... almost taking a mortgage out before an anomynous donor stepped in with almost $300,000 to allow TLC to purchase the house.

But now the task is to continue raising funds and awareness to both renovate the home and restore it to the qualities it had before Joy and her family were forced to leave their house due to enforced internment of Japanese Canadians during WW2 - even though they were born in Canada! We also want to build an endowment and create a writers-in-residence program as well as community programming.

Cherry Tree at Kogawa House Nov 2005 - photo by Don Montgomery

Last spring, Joy was living in Vancouver, and she went to visit the cherry tree to find a few spare blossoms. The tree was sickly. At the open house in September - Joy placed manure around the tree's base, spoke kind words and blessings for the tree. Joy soon returned to Toronto, but has returned to Vancouver briefly for Christmas with her daughter and grandchildren and recently at the end of March to see relatives and to give a reading for the Alcuin Society at Kogawa House on March 30th.

I drove past the front of the house... everything looks nice, except the white picket fence has fallen down.

I drove around the back of the house... and saw a most beautiful sight. The cherry tree was in full bloom.

Blossoms on cherry tree at Kogawa House - photo Todd Wong

It is like the tree (and the house) knows it has a new life. It is an old tree but heavy and full with blossoms.
Beautiful... I know if Joy saw the tree with its blossoms, there would be tears of happiness in her eyes.

Blossoms on cherry tree at Kogawa House - photo Todd Wong

2007 Blossoms on Kogawa House cherry tree - photo Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa House committee to receive Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour

Wed, 14 Feb 2007 02:32:30 -0800

Joy Kogawa House committee

to receive Vancouver Heritage

Award of Honour

A young Joy Kogawa with brother Tim standing beside their childhood home in Marpole prior to 1942 - photo courtesy of Joy Kogawa

On February 19th, at Coastal Church, the City of Vancouver Heritage Awards will give the Heritage Award of Honour jointly to Joy Kogawa House Committee and The Land Conservancy of BC.

Joy Kogawa House was the childhood home of award winning author Joy Kogawa, which she was forced to leave in 1942, at age six, when Japanese-Canadians were "evacuated" from the BC Coast and sent to internment camps during World War 2. The Canadian government subsequently confiscated all their remaining property and auctioned it off, supposedly to help pay for the cost of internment.

She and her mother always dreamed of returning to the house, but their family was sent to live in Alberta as part of the Japanese Canadian dispersal program, in an effort to keep Japanese Canadians from returning to the Coast, and trying to reclaim their confiscated property.

Obasan (1981), is the award winning book that is a fictional memoir about the internment of the Japanese-Canadians. It is considered one of Canada's most important 100 books ever written according to the Literary Review of Canada. It is the second most studied book in Canadian schools and universities.

I am one of the committee members for the Joy Kogawa House committee along with Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Anton Wagner, Ellen Crowe-Swords, Richard Hopkins, Jen Kato, Joan Young and Sabina Harpe. We have all put in incredible hours of volunteer work to help realize this project.

It was only 17 short months ago, when Ann-Marie Metten contacted me for help when she learned that a demolition inquiry for 1450 West 64th Ave. was being made. In the months to come, we would be asked why it was important to save the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. We would also be told that there was little chance to save it.

The 3rd week of September 2005, was a roller coaster for Joy Kogawa. She learned of the demolition plans in the same week that saw: 1) excerpts from the Naomi's Road opera performed at Vancouver Arts Awards; 2) she received the Community Builder's Award from Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop; and 3) the final event of One Book One Vancouver "Obasan" program where she gave a reading at Word On The Street book and magazine festival.

In December 2005, The Land Conservancy of BC stepped in to become a joint partner in our project to save the house. They became the chief fundraiser and eventually purchased the house in full in May 2006.

Joy with Richmond elementary students who wanted to save Kogawa House - photo Joan Young

We are ecstatic and honoured to receive the Award of Honour, for projects demonstrating an outstanding contribution to heritage conservation.

Nominations were accepted for:

Restoration, rehabilitation, adaptive re-use or continued maintenance of a heritage building, a significant interior of a heritage building, or characteristic features of a heritage building;
Use of innovative engineering techniques or restoration/conservation methods in upgrading a heritage building which may include seismic upgrading;
Preservation of a heritage landscape;
Heritage advocacy of a group or individual in the preservation of a heritage site or increasing public awareness of heritage issues;
Publication, education or exhibit that promotes heritage conservation;
Efforts in community or neighbourhood revitalization.

Click here to see past Heritage Award winners

What is a Canadian? Joy Kogawa response

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:43:10 -0800

Joy Kogawa was invited to be part of an anthology collected and edited by Irvin Studin.

What Is A Canadian? : Forty-Three Thought-Provoking Responses (Hardcover)
by Studin (Author)

In a year following the release of CBC TV's The Greatest Canadian" and CBC Radio's "BC Almanac's Greatest British Columbians" there is a book titled: "What is a Canadian? 43 Thought -Provoking Responses. Each of these essays begins with the words “A Canadian is . . .”. Each one is very different, producing a fascinating book for all thinking Canadians.

Here is Joy Kogawa's response...

For the other 42 responses including ones by Alan Fotheringham, Thomas Homer-Dixon, Roch Carrier, Jake MacDonald, George Elliott Clarke, Margaret MacMillan, Thomas Franck, Rosemarie Kuptana, Gérald A. Beaudoin, Peter W. Hogg, George Bowering, Christian Dufour, Paul Heinbecker, Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, John C. Crosbie, Audrey McLaughlin, Roy MacGregor, Charlotte Gray, Hugh Segal, Janet McNaughton, Sujit Choudhry, Aritha van Herk, L. Yves Fortier, Catherine Ford, Mark Kingwell, Silver Donald Cameron, Guy Laforest, Maria Tippett, E. Kent Stetson, Louis Balthazar, Joy Kogawa, Wade MacLaughlan, Douglas Glover, Lorna Marsden, Saeed Rahnema, Denis Stairs, Valerie Haig-Brown, Guy Saint-Pierre, William Watson, Doreen Barrie, Jennifer Welsh, Bob Rae - you will have to go buy the book!

What is a Canadian?

Joy Kogawa

A Canadian is a transplanted snail called James who sat down on a brick. A Canadian is a big fat street party on the Danforth in Toronto, 2004. A Canadian is hockey night in Canada on a small patch of ice created by buckets of water in the backyard. A Canadian is a plane full of people from Vancouver flying to Quebec with signs saying: “WE LOVE YOU.” A Canadian is the wind on the prairies that who has seen. And a red-headed girl in a green-gabled house on an island with red soil. And the Mounties who always always get their man. A Canadian trusts the law. And since we generally rank either second or third or fourth or whatever, we try harder. But weren’t we proud when Gorbachev said, “Look at Canada. They don’t kill people there.” Or something like that. That’s because a Canadian is, if nothing else, decent. Isn’t that the adjective that most commonly comes to mind? We’re as decent as the day is long, are we not--fair-minded, peaceable, not demanding guns to defend ourselves, abhorring and resisting the culture of violence we are virtually force-fed by the fee-fi-fo-fuming giant close by. My Canadian friends who travel a lot say we don’t know how lucky we are. I think a lot of us do know it. I, for one, am a Canadian who loves Canada more than words can say.

My love is not cheap. It’s been tested, and it endures. I can thank my parents for this. And I can thank the community from which I came, and which was destroyed by the particular brand of racism in my childhood. I can thank my Grade Two Highroads to Reading that I practically memorized when we were living in that once-upon-a-time space called Slocan (British Columbia). Books were precious and few. I can thank the CBC that I listened to when we were finally allowed to have radios again, after we were moved east of the Rockies. That’s when a Canadian became the Green Hornet, the House on the Hill, Share the Wealth, Terry and the Pirates and Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster and Rawhide, and that beautiful blonde skater, Barbara Ann Scott. Other Canadians from my community who were exiled missed out on all that. A Canadian is a group of more than four thousand people who were exiled for no crime. Oh sweet democratic country that I love. Some people are tired of this drum-beat.

At some point our flag stopped being bold red, white and blue intersecting slashes, and became a red pointy leaf on white, with two red bands. At some point we stopped singing “The Maple Leaf Forever”, because Wolfe the dauntless hero was being impolite planting Britannia’s flag on Canada’s fair domain. In Coaldale, Miss McVeety tried to teach us French, but it was a hard row to hoe. I don’t think she actually spoke French. She assigned us things to memorize from a textbook. “Mercy buck-ups,” the kids said. We all soldiered on. Mr. Connors and Mr. Bryant taught us about the crazy kings and queens of England, but we didn’t learn about Canadian history. A Canadian is someone who probably doesn’t know much about Canada.

There was a year of patriotic pride when we sang with great gusto, “It’s the hundredth anniversary of CON fed er a tion.” And there was no cloudy doubt in the clear blue air that Canada would last as long as the planet did. There was also no doubt that everyone in Canada was white, including me. My parents were another matter. I couldn’t really whiten them.

Years later, I discovered that I wasn’t completely white, and for that I received an Order of Canada. One of the most memorable moments of that day occurred when a fellow recipient who was sitting beside me leaned over to make small talk as we waited for the ceremony to begin. “I have been to your beautiful country,” he said. I was so Canadian and polite and smiled and nodded. He went on to tell me things about my country--Japan--and I kept nodding. He was French Canadian. I don’t know what his name was, but if we were arranged alphabetically, maybe his name started with K. Anyway, as I say, a Canadian is someone who probably doesn’t know much about Canada, including who a Canadian is.

About a year ago, I was visiting Thorold, a small town near St. Catherines, Ontario, when my son introduced me to one of his acquaintances, who looked to be about thirty years old. He glanced down at this old white-haired Asian foreigner from his not-so-great height and said, “Does she speak English?” I ought not to have been surprised. It wasn’t so long ago that only white people were Canadians. I was a bit put-off, but answered politely, “Yes, I speak English,” and left it at that. A Canadian is a foreigner who isn’t a foreigner.

A few miles away in the most multicultural city in the world, every subway ride is a trip through the United Nations. I suppose it’s our role, as Torontonians, to trumpet the news that humans from all over the world can, generally speaking, live together in peace. It’s one of the things that makes me happy about this country. Our ancestors might have fought each other, but we don’t have to.

In my untypical Canadian childhood, because I was related to the country of my ancestors, I was “a stench in the nostrils of the people of Canada.” Today, another Canadian child goes through that wringer, running home from school with her books clutched tight to her chest, and after supper she’s fighting with her parents about what she will or will not wear on her head. And somewhere in a high-rise elevator, a gentle Canadian boy is aware that, even though he is no longer wearing his turban, the old woman has moved aside anxiously. All these little moments of life are the mirrors that tell us who we are.

These days, I’m more worried about the children on the streets, in temporary shelters, in transitional housing--the children who are living on the hungry side of life in a world-wide apartheid, where the dividing line is as black and white as the rich and the poor. The mindset to be dismantled is the powerful faith that money is everything. In its name and for its sake, we are giving our all, sacrificing our lives, our peace, our children and our neighbours as ourselves. Like others all over the planet, we are drifting in the miasma of a dream of riches that has turned murky. Is there, as Jane Jacob’s book title says, a ‘Dark Age Ahead?’ Does our country have the kind of enlightened citizenry and moral leadership to guide us through the nightmare of greed?

There was one among us who died recently--a man who helped to shine the light of hope into the darkness of injustice and apartheid in South Africa. Ted Scott, the former primate of the Anglican Church was, as the title of his biography states, a man of “Radical Compassion.” Joe Clark called him, “an almost perfect representation of Canada.”

I was sitting behind a pillar during Ted Scott’s memorial service, leaning this way and that, trying to get a glimpse of Desmond Tutu, who was in the pulpit at St. James’ Cathedral. He spoke warmly about Ted Scott, about the gratitude of South Africans. At one point, I could see his left hand as he stretched out his arms and repeated the word “all.” “All – all – all. Arafat. Sadam Hussein. All. All. All. All.” He was including every single person on the globe in the human family--the blacks, the whites, the aboriginals, the old, the rich, the despised, the admired, the tyrant, the remorseless psychopath. All. All. All.

And so a Canadian is part of the All that includes our Ted Scotts and our Paul Bernardos, our Conrad Blacks and our neighbours sleeping and dying on the streets.

These days I am working with some of the neighbours in my corner of the world, in Toronto’s Old Town surrounding the St. Lawrence Market. We are trying to demonstrate, through the work of a community currency, the Toronto Dollar, that the power of caring is still alive, and that we can work together to make a difference. We are trying to connect the streets and the towers, trying to bridge the horrible gap between rich and poor. It’s a hard row to hoe, as hard as trying to learn a language from a textbook. But we do what we can.

Nelson Mandela says he comes from a culture of ‘ubuntu’, a philosophy based on belonging where the essential identity of a person is based not on “I think therefore I am,” but on “I am because we belong.” The enemy, then, is not someone to destroy, but someone to embrace.

I think Canada is closer to a culture of ‘ubuntu’ than many other countries. Je suis. Nous sommes. Where we fail, I’m thankful that mercy bucks us up.

Kogawa House - open house event - Sept 17, photos on flickr.com

Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:38:35 -0700

Open House event at Joy Kogawa House, September 17th.

photographs posted on Flickr.com

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The First Open House at Kogawa House

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 22:55:59 -0700

Kogawa House

The open house event at Joy Kogawa House went very well. Many many people came to see the house, and to meet Joy Kogawa, buy copies of her books and have Joy sign them. The Land Conservancy of BC did a wonderful job setting up displays about the history of the house, and the time line events about the Save Kogawa House campaign.

It has been great for the Kogawa House committee to work with Heather Skydt and Tamsin Baker of TLC. Members of our Kogawa House committee also attended to help host and volunteer: Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Richard Hopkins, Jenni Kato, Joan Young, Sabine Harper and myself.

As people walked up to the house, the first thing they saw was that the white picket fence was decorated with pictures and events highlighting the timeline to save the house from demolition, starting from when the house was built in 1942, and when Joy's family moved into the house.

A tent was set up in the front yard, attended by TLC volunteers Jon and Janet, who gave people an information sheet about the house, and recieved donations for the restoration of the house. TLC also had another display with newsclippins and pictures from events during the Save Kogawa House campaign.

Volunteers greeted people as they entered the house, and other volunteers stood throughout the house to help explain stories of different rooms, as well as historic family items such as toy cars belonging to Joy's brother Timothy, a calligraphy set used by Joy's father, and wooden crates used by the family as they moved from the internment camp in Slocan, BC, to Coaldale, Alberta.

And everybody wanted to say hello to Joy Kogawa.

There was a man who used to play with Joy as a child, before she moved away - Ralph told me that his older brother was in one of the pictures on display that featured Joy and her brother Timothy as children in 1940. There was a woman who brought pictures of the house, during the 1940's when her grandparents lived there, after her family moved away. Both Joy and this woman were very moved by this meeting.

There was a woman Daisy Kong, who had taken pictures of Joy at the Order of BC ceremony earlier this year in June, because Daisy's brother Dr. Wallace Chung also recieved the Order of BC along with Joy, in Victoria. Daisy was amazed when I told her that Dr. Wallace's wife Dr. Madeline Chung was the doctor who delivered me as a baby.

Garry Geddes, current writer in residence at Vancouver Public Library, arrived to give Joy a hug.

Attending the event was also Jen Kato, on our Kogawa House committee, and Jeff Chiba Stearns, who just won the Best Animated Short for the Canadian Awards for Electronic Arts and Animation.

People bought Joy's books and asked her to sign them. My friend Gail Thomson helped manage the booksales. Gail is a librarian at Fraserview Branch in Vancouver, where Joy came to speak during the One Book One Vancouver program.

We surprised Joy with a special musical performance: Jessica Cheung (who played the role of Naomi in the Naomi's Road Opera) sang "The Farewell Song" from the Opera, I accompanied on accordion, Harry Aoki on double bass, and Harry's friend Misako Watanabe on accoustic guitar. Joy was moved to tears.

After the event, we had birthday cake to celebrate David Kogawa's birthday. David is one of our wonderful Kogawa House committee members, and Joy's ex-husband and good friend.

CBC: Reprieved Kogawa House opens to public

Fri, 15 Sep 2006 19:46:43 -0700

Here's a story on CBC about Kogawa House, and the open house event on Sunday.
I will be there with my accordion, and also volunteering.

Repreived Kogawa House

opens to public

http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/09/15/kogawa-house.html

Last Updated Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:59:45 EDT

CBC Arts

Joy Kogawa's house, which received a last-minute reprieve from demolition when it was bought by a Vancouver heritage agency this spring, will open to the public this Sunday.

The modest wood-frame house in Marpole is featured in Obasan, Kogawa's much loved novel about the internment of Japanese Canadians, and her children's book, Naomi's Road.

The Land Conservancy of British Columbia bought the house in May and plans to turn it into a residence for writers and an education centre about the Japanese internment during the Second World War.

But the public is being given a one-day chance to see the bungalow before restoration work begins.

Kogawa will be there for a scheduled book signing and the desk and typewriter that she used to write Obasan will be on display.

The event is a fund-raiser to help pay for restoration of the house, which could cost an estimated $500,000.

The house itself was saved from a wrecking ball through the intervention of the Land Conservancy, which led a campaign to save it, working with writers' groups and heritage groups.

The campaign drew donations from 550 people from around the world and a last-minute corporate donation of $500,000 helped with the purchase price.

A developer who owned the property wanted more than $700,000 for the house, which has been neglected over the years.

Kogawa lived in the house with her family from 1937 to 1942, when it was confiscated by the government.

The house has national significance as a symbol of the racial discrimination experienced by Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.

The house is one of the few residences left in Vancouver that is identified as having been sold by the Canadian government without the lawful owner's permission.

The house is open from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

Google Alert for: kogawa house - September 14

Thu, 14 Sep 2006 17:33:32 -0700

Google Alert for: kogawa house - September 14

Joy Kogawa and her childhood home

in the city UPCOMING EVENTS inthecity@westender.com

Vancouver Westender - BC, Canada
... Homecoming: The Save Kogawa House Committee and the Land Conservancy host a fundraiser and the first public tour of the Joy Kogawa House (1450 W. 64th) on ...

Joy of history
Georgia Straight - Vancouver,British Columbia,Canada
... racial discrimination. The open house happens on Sunday afternoon (September 17), with Kogawa herself in attendance to sign books.

Todd visits Kogawa House - inside and out

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:14:14 -0700

Todd visits Kogawa House

- inside and out

The 1915 house is modest, and now seems out of place beside the new larger homes built on either side of it. There is a tall cedar tree and a tall pine tree, and rhododendron bushes in the front yard, shielding the house, as if it is hiding it from the street trying not to be noticed. It is really a wonder that such a small house has survived until now, with all the redevelopment in the Marpole neighborhood.

I looked carefully at the house that I have visited many times in the past year, always veiwing from the outside. The front door was open. Inside was a planning meeting organized by The Land Conservancy of BC - the new owners of the historic house. We would be planning the open house event on September 17th as the first public event at Kogawa House.

Attending the meeting were staff and board members of The Land Conservancy of BC. Heather Skydt and Tamsin have been working with us since December 2nd of last year when the TLC officially stepped in to lead the fundraising to purchase Kogawa House. Ann-Marie Metten is my colleague and friend on the Kogawa House committee. Fran is the event chair. Janet is a member. Rich Kenney is staff.

We are planning an afternoon that will include:

- book signings by Joy
- musical entertainment
- historical displays
- history of the house
- food and drinks

The house is in pretty good structural shape. Past owners have renovated the house at different times. An addition was created. But it looks like the original wood floor and panels in some areas. Joy's desk from Toronto and typewriter that she used to write Obasan is now sitting in her former bedroom. A door from her childhood bedroom was created into what used to be her parents bedroom, next door. Her older brother Timothy slept downstairs.

It is a modest house, but a house that you could imagine a Canadian family celebrating Christmas in during the 1940's. The father telling the children that his sister will come look after them, while their mother has to go to Japan to look after her mother. You can imagine the scenes from the Naomi's Road opera happening in this house.

It is a house that a six year old would dream about in the years to come, pining that she could return, after being shuffled from temporary house to temporary house, in internment camps, and sugar beet farms where they were forced to live and work because the Canadian government had deemed this "Born in Canada" family "too dangerous" to live on the Pacific Coast.

In the past year, I have written much about the need to save this house on this website, and even started up a new website www.kogawahouse.com. I wrote up 20 Reasons to Save Kogawa House from Demolition on Oct 19th.

It had been September 22nd, 2005 when Ann-Marie Metten informed me that an architect was inquiring about a demolition permit for 1450 West 64th Ave. Kogawa House. Anne-Marie and I had spoken earlier in February, 2005 when I first wrote 20 Reasons why Joy Kogawa's Obasan is the perfect nomination choice for One Book One Vancouver 2005 program at VPL.

Later that same day, on Sept. 22nd Ann-Marie and I had sent out the following press release:

Kogawa Homestead threatened by Demolition Permit Application
- same week as Joy Kogawa is celebrated throughout Vancouver

This week, notice was received that an application for demolition was made to Vancouver City Hall by the owner of the Kogawa homestead. It is a house celebrated by the award winning novel "Obasan," and the childhood home of famed writer Joy Kogawa.

Kogawa's reaction has been of shock and dispair, as she knew that efforts were being made to save the beloved cherry tree in the back yard which figures prominently in the novel. Vancouver city councillor Jim Green is a founding member of the "Save the Kogawa Homestead" committee.

This is a weekend when Joy Kogawa is being celebrated all across Vancouver... at the Vancouver Public Library for One Book One Vancouver, at a Sep 24th dinnner celbebration for the Rice Paper Magazine 10th Anniversary Celebration, on Sunday for the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Fair, and next week for the Vancouver Opera Premiere for "Naomi's Road."

A movement to buy the house, and to apply for heritage designation was aborted 2 years ago because of high costs to buy the house and resistance from the new owner to sell. The owner at the time said that she liked the house and did not intend to demolish it.

Now more than ever, it is important to preserve this house for the cultural heritage of Vancouver. There is not another house in Vancouver that is recognized for being confiscated during a dark time in Canada's history.

No other house in Vancouver could be turned into a bright spot on our cultural landscape as a writer's retreat, celebrating the work of a writer which has been called the most influential Canadian novel of the past 20 years. There is no other writer whose work helped fuel the Japanese-Canadian Redress movement, and has also received the Order of Canada.

In May, the Vancouver Public Library selected Obasan as the book chosen for all Vancouverites to read, as part of their award winning "city wide book club." Earlier this summer, during One Book One Vancouver events Joy Kogawa held up a graft of the cherry tree that held such a revered place in the novel Obasan - studied by so many Canadians in high schools and universities across Canada. Both the novel and the homestead have a proven place in Vancouver’s literary history.

By the next day we had a call from Alexandra Gill of the Globe & Mail, who put a small article in that weekend's edition.

Also on the Friday night, highlights from the upcoming Vancouver Opera production of Naomi's Road were performed by at the 2nd Annual Vancouver Arts Awards. I bumped into then city councillor Jim Green and mayor Larry Campbell. They asked me about the state of the house, and I informed them. Both Green and Campbell announced to the packed audience of Vancouver's cultural movers and shakers that they were distraught to hear that Joy Kogawa's childhood home was threatened, especially when city council had just passed a motion to plant a cherry tree graft from the house at city hall.

On Saturday night, Joy Kogawa was celebrated with a Community Builder's Award by the Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop at the 10th Anniversary Rice Paper dinner. Joy asked me to speak about the campaign to save the house.

On Sunday afternoon, Joy Kogawa read from her novel Obasan, at the closing event for the 2005 One Book One Vancouver program for the Vancouver Public Library, held during the Word on the Street Book and Magazine Fair.

It was a busy weekend - but the word was out - Joy's childhood home was in danger of demolition. Who people be willing to help save it?

It is now a year later. So much has happened.

Here are some of the highlights:

May, 2005 - Obasan named as the One Book One Vancouver 2005 selection by the Vancouver Public Library. Joy also is reunited with her brother Rev. Timothy Nakayama, whom she hasn't seen in 10 years.

September 27th,
Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop / Ricepaper magazine 10th Anniversary dinner honouring Joy Kogawa as a Community Builder

(left photo courtesy of Jessica Cheung - right photo courtesy of Vancouver Opera)

September 30 - Oct 2.
Naomi's Road (review) opens at Norman Rothstein Theatre. Commisioned by Vancouver Opera for the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble, it will go on to perform at schools throughout BC, plus Alberta and Washington State.

November 1st,
Obasan Cherry Tree Day, declared by Vancouver City Hall. Event is presided over by then Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, and attended by Paul Whitney (City Librarian), and James Wright (Vancouver Opera General Director).

November 3rd,
Vancouver City Council votes to delay processing demolition permit for 120 day, effective November 30th. 120 days given to Kogawa House, as demolition timeline extended

November 2005

Joy Kogawa is one of Almanac's 100 Greatest British Columbians

December 1st,
The Land Cconservancy joins community efforts to save Joy Kogawa's childhood home

December 26th,
Joy Kogawa featured on CBC Radio's "Sounds Like Canada"
interview by Kathryn Gretzinger

January 22, 2006
Joy Kogawa is the featured poet/author at 2006 Gung Haggis Fat Choy Robbie Burns Chinese New Year dinner. Kogawa House is included as a recipient from annual fundraising dinner.

February 8th, 2006
Joy Kogawa House named to Heritage Vancouver's 2006 Top Ten list of endangered buildings.

February 11
Joy Kogawa & Friends - Emotionally and Truthful reading at Chapters on Robson, Saturday Feb 11
Joy is joined by Daphne Marlatt, Ellen Crowe-Swords and Roy Miki.

February 15,
Joy Kogawa is keynote speaker for the Canadian Club's annual "Order of Canada / Flag Day" luncheon - welcoming BC's newest recipients of the Order of Canada. Joy recieved the Order of Canada in 1986.

February 27th,
"Emily Kato" Book launch at Vancouver Public Libary - it is a rewritten version of Itsuka, the sequel to Obasan and focusses on the Japanese Canadian redress process.

March 9th,
Joy Kogawa fundraiser in Toronto, at Church of the Holy Trinity.
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/11/1816004.html
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2006/3/16/1823641.html

March 26th,

Thomsett Elementary School Children visit Kogawa House with Joy
These Richmond school children also went to City of Vancouver to ask Mayor Sam Sullivan to help save the house.

March 30th,
TLC negotiates a 30 day extension for the demolition permit with the owner of the house.

April 25th,
Joy of Canadian Words - fundraiser event in Vancouver, at Christ Church Cathedral. Special speakers include CBC Radio's Sheryl Mackay, actors Joy Coghill, Doris Chilcott, Hiro Kanagawa, Maiko Bae Yamamoto, Chief Rhonda Larabee. Hosted by Todd Wong (Save Kogawa House Committee) and Bill Turner (The Land Conservancy).

April 30th,
TLC exercises their option to purchase historic Joy Kogawa House.

May 15th
Naomi's Road at Seattle Public Library - seen by Joy Kogawa's brother Rev. Timothy Nakayama

May 18th,
Joy Kogawa named to Order of BC

May 30th,
TLC officially purchases Kogawa House - mortgage free!
TLC becomes proud owner of historic Joy Kogawa House

June 22nd
Joy Kogawa goes to Victoria to recieve Order of BC
http://www.protocol.gov.bc.ca/protocol/prgs/obc/2006/2006_JKogawa.htm

June 23
Gung Haggis Fat JOY KOGAWA HOUSE celebration dinner.
Joy returns from Victoria with Order of BC

Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House - joy kogawa

Georgia Straight: Joy Kogawa House is "BEST NEW PLACE TO GET WRITING DONE "

Visit Joy Kogawa at the Royal BC Museum - take a picture with her!

Globe & Mail: 'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance' - story about Joy Kogawa's childhood home and beloved cherry t

Globe & Mail: 'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance' - story about Joy Kogawa's childhood home and beloved cherry tree

'Instead of dying, it's been given a second chance'

Celebrated author Joy Kogawa returns to the house her family lost during their wartime internment and revels in its future

A Place of Compassion: Joy Kogawa's Dream Vancouver statement

A Place of Compassion

Ryukoku Sogo Gakuen

Cherry tree blossoms at Kogawa House

Joy Kogawa House committee to receive Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour

What is a Canadian? Joy Kogawa response

Kogawa House - open house event - Sept 17, photos on flickr.com

Kogawa House Time Line Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Joy Kogawa Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Jessica with .... Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Catherine and the cherry tree Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Tamsin Baker and Catherine Uploaded on 19 September 2006

and the best news is!! Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Harry Aoki Uploaded on 19 September 2006

The rain can't hold us back Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Todd Wong and Jessica Cheung Uploaded on 19 September 2006

some of the guests watch the performance Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Joy and the cherry tree Uploaded on 19 September 2006

The First Open House at Kogawa House

CBC: Reprieved Kogawa House opens to public

Last Updated Fri, 15 Sep 2006 17:59:45 EDT

CBC Arts

Google Alert for: kogawa house - September 14

Todd visits Kogawa House - inside and out

Kogawa House Time Line
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Joy Kogawa
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Jessica with ....
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Catherine and the cherry tree
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Tamsin Baker and Catherine
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

and the best news is!!
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Harry Aoki
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

The rain can't hold us back
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Todd Wong and Jessica Cheung
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

some of the guests watch the performance
Uploaded on 19 September 2006

Joy and the cherry tree
Uploaded on 19 September 2006