Joy Kogawa & Friends – Emotional and Truthful reading @ Chapters on Robson, Saturday, Feb 11
Report by Todd Wong
It was a surprisingly emotional and appreciative audience that thanked each of the readers on Saturday Feb 11th at Chapters on Robson St.
Roy Miki started by reading segments from his book REDRESS: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice. Miki read passages that set the tone and described how the government used language to euphemize and downplay the confiscation of property, the massive uprooting and tearing of social fabric, and the internment of Japanese Canadians, labeled as “enemy aliens.”
Daphne Marlatt read from her book of poetry “Steveston”, a collection of poetry about the Japanese Canadian community in of Steveston in Richmond BC. She verbally painted a picture of the community and its loss.
Ellen Crowe-Swords created a poignant moment when she set the time of her story, as the 2nd week in December 1942. She set a 6 year old Joy Kogawa playing in her cherry Tree, herself as a week old baby, Daphne Marlatt as new child immigrant to Canada, and Roy Miki as a “twinkle in your father’s eye” as Miki was born after internment while his parents were relocated on a beet farm.
Joy herself, spoke about the challenges of the recent house campaign and read from Emily Kato – a reworking of Itsuka. She commented that she rewrote Itsuka to try to make it a better book – but unfortunately it has been very difficult to find. This is incredulous because of all the attention that Joy and her works have been recieving with 2005’s One Book One Vancouver program at the Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver Opera’s Naomi’s Road touring production, and now the Save Kogawa House campaign which has gone national.
When questions from the audience arose, several people thanked the readers and many had tears in their eyes because the talk and the experience was so emotional releasing. Joy had spoken about the need to overcome the darkness and find the light in redress for both Japanese Canadians and Chinese Canadians. She had also read a letter from a Japanese Canadian person who had grown up as an internee housed in not a shack, or a stable, but a chicken coop – with fleas.
One Chinese Canadian woman said she had been involved in the CC redress in Montreal, but hadn’t been able to find a sense of community and like-minded individuals in Vancouver. She apologized for crying, saying she didn’t know how bad it was for the Japanese Canadians, as people kept telling her that you cannot compare JC redress to CC redress. But while 62 years of legislated racism affected each group differently (Roy Miki’s book Redress points out that Canada had a “gentleman’s agreement” with Japan to limit emigration from Japan to Canada), Both were affected very much by the very strong anti-Asian resentment in Canada at the time, which certainly resulted in the 1907 riots where the Anti-Asiatic League attacked both Chinatown and Japantown.
Joy will next be giving the keynote talk at the “Order of Canada / Flag Day” luncheon organized by The Canadian Club. Feb 15, 2006 at the Four Seasons Hotel. This is a very prestigious event that acknowledges BC’s newest Order of Canada recipients.
Joy will give a public reading at the Vancouver Public Library on Feb 27th. This is to be the Vancouver launch for her book Emily Kato (reworked Itsuka) which follows Naomi’s journey to Toronto to work with Aunt Emily on the Japanese Canadian redress campaign.
Here’s an article on Raincoast Books’ blog about the event.