Deadline to save Kogawa’s old home draws near
Petti Fong
Published February 16, 2006
Celebrated Canadian author Joy Kogawa has a deadline hanging over her.
By the end of March, she’s hoping that enough money will be raised to save her childhood Vancouver home from demolition and turn it into a writer-in-residence’s retreat.
But with the deadline just six weeks away, fundraising has reached just $160,000, far below the $1.25-million needed to buy the house from the current owners and maintain it as a writers’ retreat.
“We’re hopeful that more people will hear about this,” said Tamsin Baker, regional manager with the Land Conservancy.
Along with the conservancy, a Save Kogawa House Committee has been helping to raise money.
Although Ms. Kogawa lived in the house in the Marpole area for just six years, the bungalow has become a symbol for many far greater than a place where a writer once lived.
In 1942, Ms. Kogawa and her family were removed from Vancouver and interned in the Interior town of Slocan. Like thousands of Japanese-Canadians, their property, including the house in Marpole, was confiscated.
For nearly 100 years, the bungalow has sat on West 64th Avenue. After Ms. Kogawa’s family was forcibly removed during the Second World War, a succession of owners lived at the house.
But because of its place in literature, through Ms. Kogawa’s novel Obasan, the bungalow is anchored in details of a life disturbed suddenly. In Obasan, Ms. Kogawa describes the fruit trees in the back, trees that remain to this day, and she remembers playing in the backyard.
When city hall voted last November to delay demolition to allow for heritage preservation efforts, fundraising began in earnest to keep the house from being destroyed.
The current owners want to build a new house on the lot.
Ms. Baker with the conservancy said donations ranging from $30 to thousands have come in, but still more is needed. Faculty at Toronto’s York University have pledged $1,000 and urged other faculties across the country to match or beat their donation.
Yesterday, Ms. Baker said, a $10,000 donation came in.
Ms. Kogawa, who talked to students yesterday at a Canadian Club luncheon in downtown Vancouver, said she’s hoping for a miracle. “It’s miraculous enough that the house itself has survived for so long,” she added.
Recently someone suggested to her that if everyone who had read Obasan donated $1, enough money would be raised to preserve the house.