Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House - kogawa house

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

Cherry Tree planted, Sen. Ruth acknowledged as $ 1/2 Million donor, Joy given Georrge Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:18:42 -0700

It was a wonderful busy

busy day of celebration

at Joy Kogawa House

on April 25th.

3pm press conference, introduction of formerly anomnynous $500,000 donor (Sen. Nancy Ruth) + baby cherry tree planting

At 3:40pm, we sat inside the living room of Historic Joy Kogawa House and listened to CBC Radio One's Arts Report by Paul Grant. Paul had interviewed Sen. Nancy Ruth, Bill Turner and Joy Kogawa for his story on how the house was saved, and how Sen. Nancy Ruth's formerly anonymous gift of $500,000 was important. In this picture Hon. Iona Campagnolo, Sen. Nancy Ruth and Joy Kogawa.- photo Todd Wong

Hon. Iona Campagnolo (former BC Lt. Gov. speaks about importance of preserving culture and heritage represented through Historica Joy Kogawa house. She stands next to Joy Kogawa, Bill Turner (TLC executive director), Senator Nancy Ruth, Ujal Dosanjh MP for Vancouver South, Ellen Woodsworth (former Vancouver City councilor) - photo Todd Wong

4pm VIP reception - where we sold 6 baby cherry trees that will be planted at designated public sites (I want to plant one at Government House in Victoria)

Joy Kogawa signs books for MP Ujal Dosanjh and Vancouver councilor Heather Deal - two of the politicians we first contacted in 2005 to find ways to save the house and ensure its heritage designations. - photo Todd Wong

8pm Music and Poetry with Joy Kogawa and Friends, featuring poets George McWhirter, Heidi Greco, Marion Quednau, soprano Heather Pawsey, flautist Kathryn Cernauskas, pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwassa, and composer Leslie Uyeda.

Author Joy Kogawa reads to a packed house in her childhood home. Composer Leslie Uyeda stands 2nd from left. Vancouver Public Library Community Programming director Janice Douglas sits in the front row, 3rd from left. - photo Todd Wong

Following the music, Joy was presented with the George Woodcock Literary Achievement Award from BC Bookworld Publisher Alan Twigg, Vancouver Public Library Community Programs Director Janice Douglas, and historian Jean Barman.

Alan Twigg speaks of Joy's accomplishments Joy Kogawa accepts the award

This morning Joy Kogawa sent this email out to our Historic Joy Kogawa House Society

Dear Friends,

For a day of unalloyed happiness --

I have had many many wonderful days in my life -- but this one! It was the happiest. If ever I've felt at home.... Or felt the love that underlies all...

My friend Heather Pawsey, soprano wrote:

Last night was one of the most beautiful and profound evenings of my musical life. Heartfelt thanks to everyone behind Kogawa House. May it continue to rise and spread its wings.

Pictures and more details to follow.
see:

Kogawa House April 25 2008

Joy Kogawa House, April 25th 2008

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

Joy Kogawa House Society is now a legal entity

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 00:02:12 -0700

The Historic Joy Kogawa House Society is now incorporated with the BC Registry of Societies, which means we’re now a legal entity that can carry forward the purposes of the society:

Purposes

The purposes of the Society shall be:

1. To operate and preserve the former Joy Kogawa family home at 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver as a heritage and cultural centre and as a site of healing and reconciliation.

2. To establish in the former Joy Kogawa family home a centre for writers in which they can reflect on issues of conscience and reconciliation and write about their own personal experiences or the experiences of others, past or present.

3. To promote and negotiate the raising of funds for the pursuit of the Society’s purposes.

4. To encourage in the former Joy Kogawa family home educational programming along themes of social justice and social history, and to provide docent services for such programming.

5. To advocate on behalf of the continuing operation of the house in the public interest consistent with the above purposes.

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 gives March 30th reading for Alcuin Society at Kogawa House

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 23:34:56 -0700

Joy Kogawa gives March 30th reading for Alcuin Society at Kogawa House

Seventeen Alcuin Society members and their guests participated in the first of a new series of members-only meetings on March 30th at the historic Joy Kogawa heritage house in Marpole.

Kogawa House Committee member Ann-Marie Metten started the evening by explaining the series of successful steps that were taken to save the historic house from demolition. Future plans are to return the house to its original condition and then to offer the house as a place of retreat for writers of conscience from around the world.

Richard Hopkins then spoke of Joy Kogawa’s considerable literary achievements in the areas of fiction, poetry and children’s literature. Joy’s books were available for members to examine after the presentations.

The definite highlight of the evening, however, was a reading by Joy herself from her award winning novel Obasan. The reading had particular resonance for the audience since Joy continuously referred to places mentioned in the novel that were right before the audience’s eyes.

After the reading she spoke with incredible energy and passion about the Japanese internment during the Second World War and all of the hardship and suffering that that injustice caused so many Japanese families and the Japanese community in Canada as a whole.

Fortunately some reparation for these wrongs have occurred in the form of Federal Government redress and in the saving of the Kogawa house itself. All of the audience members felt at the end of the evening that they had received a rare privilege in being able to hear Joy read and speak her own moving personal experience.

TLC press release: VANCOUVER HERITAGE AWARD OF HONOUR GOES TO TLC & KOGAWA HOUSE COMMITTEE

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 15:20:50 -0800

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb 21, 2007

VANCOUVER HERITAGE AWARD OF HONOUR GOES TO TLC & KOGAWA HOUSE COMMITTEE

VANCOUVER, BC – TLC The Land Conservancy and Kogawa House Committee has received a 2007 City of Vancouver Heritage Award for their work in protecting the childhood home of Canadian author, Joy Kogawa.

The 28th annual City of Vancouver Heritage Awards were presented on February 19, the first day of Heritage Week, to tribute the extraordinary efforts of architects, community organization, developers, writers, artists and ordinary citizen who work to preserve Vancouver’s heritage.

Mayor Sam Sullivan conferred an award of honour to TLC and the Kogawa House Committee, for its outstanding advocacy efforts in saving the Historic Joy Kogawa House, bringing municipal, provincial, national and international attention to the effort with its theme of “Hope, Healing and Reconciliation”, thus preserving an important part of Vancouver’s cultural heritage.

Historic Joy Kogawa House is the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa, from which she and her family were removed from the home in 1942 as part of the Government’s policy of internment of Canadians of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Located in the Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver, Kogawa House is a symbol of the wrongs that were committed in the past. It is this house that is featured prominently in her award winning novel Obasan, a powerful story of that internment and features the house prominently as part of her childhood recollections.

“It is an honour to be recognized among the heritage community and I’d like to thank everyone that worked on this fundraising campaign as well as our 550 donors,” says Bill Turner, TLC’s Executive Director. “I’m pleased to say this accomplishment is a testament of what a community of concerned individuals can to do to make a change in the world. It is important for us to ensure our stories as a national do not disappear over time. The story of the Historic Joy Kogawa House will live on with everyone it touched.”

“This house was saved by the poets, writers, film makers, literary and heritage lovers, and the activists and visionaries of our community, “ says Todd Wong of the Kogawa House Committee. “It is a powerful gift to Vancouver, BC, Canada and the world for the voices of conscience. That the house has survived this long is a miracle, and it took a miracle to save it. This house was destined to become both a historical and literary landmark. The Kogawa House committee is honoured to receive this award, and we are in debt to all the believers.”

In light of the fact TLC purchased the Historic Joy Kogawa House in early June 2006, donations are still required for restoration and an endowment to allow the house to be used both as an educational site addressing the issue of the internment of Canadians of Japanese heritage during the World War II and as a site for a ‘Writers-in-Residence’ program. Donations can be made by calling: (604) 733-2313.

-30-

For further information:
TLC: Bill Turner (250) 213-1090; bturner@conservancy.bc.ca
Save Kogawa House Committee: Todd Wong (604) 240-7090; gunghaggis@yahoo.ca

TLC and Save Joy Kogawa House committee both receive City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:28:00 -0800

TLC and Save Joy Kogawa

House committee both

receive City of Vancouver

Heritage Award of Honour

It was a great night for the members of Save Kogawa House Committee and TLC: The Land Conservancy of BC. We were all honoured with the City of Vancouver Heritage Awards of Honour. It was the last award presented following the multiple recipients for awards of recognition and awards of merit. TLC executive director Bill Turner and myself, for Save Kogawa House Committee, were tagged to give the aceptance speeches.

The awards were held at the beautiful and historic Coastal Church, at 1160 West Georgia St. A reception was held from 5:30 to 7pm, and it was great to see and socialize with all the event's attendees. I had a great chat with historian Jean Barman. City Councillor Peter Ladner congratulated me on a well-run Gung Haggis Fat Choy that he attended. Other City Councillors Heather Deal, George Chow and Suzanne Anton congratulated us on saving Kogawa House. Friends Kelly Ip, Howe Lee were there. Parks Commissioner Spencer Herbert gave me the latest update on his petition to name the new Vancouver park at Selkirk and 72nd, as David Suzuki Park. Artist Raymond Chow and house genealogist James Johnstone were there. Dianne Switzer of the Vancouver Heritage Foundation waved to us.

The evening's emcee was Christopher Gaze, creator and director of Bard on the Beach. Gaze gave a summation of Vancouver's early arts and cultural history, accompanied by projected pictures. It started with the first piano arriving in 1851, and included great names and performances such as Nijinksky, Boris Karloff and Benny Goodman, as well as local luminaries such as Dal Richards and Jimmy Pattison. This "introduction" to the awards event finished with a musical performance by Destino, the four tenors "popera" group.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan came to the stage to welcome and thank all the nominees. Mayor Sullivan handed out the award certificates, after Gaze read descriptions of each of the award winning projects.

Here is the draft of the acceptance speech which I presented at the Vancouver Heritage Awards:

Once upon a time, 6 year old Naomi Nakane was told to pack for a train vacation with her brother Stephen. But it wasn’t a vacation. And the train took them far away from the house that they loved. They would never ever again live in a house as nice or as loved. They would learn that as Canadians of Japanese ancestry… they were being singled out, removed from the West Coast, interned in former ghost-towns as make-shift camps, have their houses, businesses and property left behind confiscated and sold by the government, and then given an option to “repatriate” to Japan or move East away from the coast, because the government and community leaders did not want them trying to reclaim their former property. They were dispersed across Canada like the blowing snow.

That is the fictional story of Joy Kogawa’s award winning books Obasan and Naomi’s Road.

Joy’s real story is that after they were interned, as a little girl, she would dream about their house. She would write letters to the occupants of the house, asking politely if someday, when they no longer wanted the house, if they could buy it back.

The little girl – Joy Kogawa grew up to become one of Canada’s most important writers. Her first novel Obasan was the first major Canadian fiction to address with Japanese Canadian internment. It later became a children’s story Naomi’s Road.

On later visits she discovered that the house, her childhood home was still standing. Attempts in 2002 to raise money to purchase the house, was thwarted when the house was sold to an overseas owner.

2005 was the year of Joy Kogawa. Vancouver Public Library chose Obasan as the 2005 selection for One Book One Vancouver. Vancouver Opera premiered a 45 minute opera based on Naomi’s Road to tour to BC Schools.

And during a week when Joy’s work was being celebrated all across the city, at Word On The Street, Vancouver Arts Awards, and by Asian Canadian Writer’s Workshop… We learned that the demolition permit was being applied for.

This house was saved.

This house was saved by poets, writers, film makers, human rights activists, historians, and visionaries.

From people all across Canada. From Canadians abroad – We heard from Sweden and Japan and USA. This house is for all Vancouverites, and for Canadians and global citizens who care about Canadian history. Culture and human rights. Anton Wagner, Ann-Marie and I are not Japanese-Canadians. We weren’t interned. We aren’t married into JC families. But we are concerned Canadians who love our history, culture and heritage. There is little in Vancouver to celebrate our Japanese Canadian, Asian Canadian pioneer heritage in Vancouver. We need to recognize our Asian-Canadian pioneers and our centuries long heritage.

Vancouver’s literary landmarks are a Robbie Burns statue and Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park. Kogawa House gives us something contempoary. It lives and breathes with each reading of Obasan, each performance of Naomi’s Road. Millions of people visit Amsterdam to visit Anne Frank House. Millions of people visit Prince Edward Island to see the home of Anne of Green Gables. But Anne Shirley was fictional. Joy Kogawa is real. And Joy’s stories continue to tell the history and the culture of Canadians.

With a Kogawa House Writing Centre, we can continue to celebrated Joy’s works and the history of Japanese Canadians. We can also encourage writers to share their stories and help write our future story of Canada – hopefully one free of racism and internment camps.

We wish to thank:

Gerry McGeough and Hugh McLean of the City’s Heritage Planning department, who first communicated with Anton Wagner about the demolition. Hugh was responding to an Attention Read Note that former heritage planner Terry Brunette had placed on the Kogawa House property listing in the City’s planning department. Gerry was very helpful in drafting an unprecedented motion to delay approval of a demolition permit for 120 days.

Heather Redfern of the Vancouver Alliance for Arts and Culture, Marion Quednau of the Writers Union of Canada and Diane Switzer, for speaking on our behalf to Vancouver City Council on November 3, 2005.

Diane Switzer and Vancouver Heritage Foundation for first coming to Vancouver City Hall to meet with Terry Brunette in October 2003 and then connecting us with TLC The Land Conservancy after we had won the 120-day delay.

Jim Green and Sen. Larry Campbell for declaring Joy Kogawa Obasan Day at Vancouver City Hall, for making the first public announcment and telling the audience at Vancouver Arts Awards about the need to save the house.

Chris Kurata in Toronto for organizing to stop the demolition and creating the first Kogawa House website.

Roy Miki for always being there for consultation and readings.

Margaret Atwood and Paul Yee for their valued quotes.

James Johnston for his early genealogy of 1450 West 64th Ave.

Ellen Woodsworth for her early help prepping us for the City Hall Council meeting on November 3, 2005.

City Councilors Suzanne Anton and Heather Deal, whom we first contacted as Park Commissioners.

Raymond Chow for creating a painting of Joy as a child at the house circa 1941.

The 2005 Vancouver City Council for passing a unamimous decision to delay processing of the demolition permit and making donations out of their pocket that day to launch fundraising.

Literary and writing assocations across Canada for their early and continuing support, including the following:

Writers Union of Canada
Federation of BC Writers
Playwrights Guild of Canada
Canadian Authors Association
Periodical Writers Association of Canada
PEN Canada
Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival
Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers
League of Canadian Poets

Writers' Trust of Canada
Asian Canadian Writers Workshop

The project has also been endorsed by the Vancouver Public Library Board, Vancouver Opera, the Alliance for Arts and Culture, Heritage Vancouver, The Land Conservancy, the National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre, the National Association of Japanese Canadians, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Association of Book Publishers of BC

VPL's One Book One Vancouver Program & Vancouver Opera's Naomi's Road for really raising the awareness of Joy Kogawa and her work.

Joan Young and her Grades 3 and 4 class at Thomsett Elementary in Richmond, and her principal Sabina Harpe, for motivating the children to take part in the campaign. They created their own initiatives to save the house by writing letters to Vancouver City Council and meeting with Councillor Kim Capri.

The Reverend Val Anderson, former MLA for Vancouver-Langara, who took a special interest in the project because of his connections to the Japanese Canadian community in Marpole.

The Honorable Ujjal Dosanjh, who spoke on behalf of Kogawa House in Parliament on April 6, 2006.

The Nikkei Voice and the National Association of Japanese Canadians, who were supportive from the beginning of the campaign.

Don Luxton, executive director of Heritage Vancouver, who listed Kogawa House as one of Vancouver's Top 10 Endangered Heritage Sites in 2006 and then discussed our campaign during a guided tour aboard a vintage Transit Museum Society bus

Our wonderful anonymous donor (who came to the rescue when TLC was prepared to purchase the house with a mortgage).

TLC, The Land Conservancy of British Columbia, for stepping into the project to take over the fundraising and the nitty gritty details that we had no experience handling. Bill Turner, executive director, their team of Tamsin Baker, Heather Skydt and Rich Kenny, and the many board members.

Our dedicated members and volunteers of Kogawa House Committee:

Anton Wagner, Chris Kurata, Margaret Steffler, Tomoko Makabe and Kathy Chung in Ontario

Ann-Marie Metten, David Kogawa, Ellen Crowe-Swords, Richard Hopkins, Jen Kato, Joan Young, Sabina Harpe, Deb Martin, and Harry Aoki in Vancouver

Also . . . journalists who covered the story, including Alexandra Gill and Rod Mickleburgh of the Globe and Mail, Sandra Thomas of the Vancouver Courier; Kate Taylor and Michael Posner in the Globe and Mail; Barbara Wickens in Maclean's magazine; CBC Radio's Paul Grant and Sheryl Mackay for their stories; Radio Canada for covering our November 10 awareness event, and to Kathryn Gretsinger and her producer Rosemary Allenbach, who broadcast Joy’s appeal to rescue her home on a Boxing Day broadcast of "Sounds Like Canada."

Thank you all.

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

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

Kogawa House Time Line
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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.

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.

Welcome to Historic Joy Kogawa House - kogawa house

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

Cherry Tree planted, Sen. Ruth acknowledged as $ 1/2 Million donor, Joy given Georrge Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award

Kogawa House April 25 2008

Joy Kogawa House, April 25th 2008

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

Joy Kogawa House Society is now a legal entity

Cherry tree blossoms at Kogawa House

Joy Kogawa gives March 30th reading for Alcuin Society at Kogawa House

TLC press release: VANCOUVER HERITAGE AWARD OF HONOUR GOES TO TLC & KOGAWA HOUSE COMMITTEE

TLC and Save Joy Kogawa House committee both receive City of Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour

Joy Kogawa House committee to receive Vancouver Heritage Award of Honour

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

Google Alert for: kogawa house - September 14

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