Kogawa House: The Case to create a literary and historical landmark for Vancouver
Recently I was asked to state a case for preserving Kogawa House.
The best answer is to experience these upcoming events, Vancouver Opera’s Naomi’s Road
- Saturday, March 4, 2006, 7:00 pm at West Vancouver Memorial Library
- March 11, 2006, 7:30 pm at Vancouver Japanese Language School Hall
Monday, Feb 27th. Emily Kato book launch – Vancouver Public Library,
I will MC a special “Emily Kato” book launch for Joy Kogawa. There will be special guests and presentations. This will be the penultimate One Book One Vancouver follow up program, as “Emily Kato” is the reworked sequel that highlights the JC Redress movement of the 1980s.
The Case for Preserving Kogawa House…
1) It is a historical and literary landmark: Joy is one of Canada’s most influential and honoured authors. Vancouver has only two literary landmarks and both are in Stanley Park – Robbie Burns statue and Pauline Johnson memorial. Name another Canadian author listed in BC Almanac’s Greatest British Columbians, Literary Review of Canada, and Quill and Quire’s top 100 books? Has received the Order of Canada? Has had an opera made from their works?
“The destruction of the Kogawa home would be a great loss of cultural heritage for Vancouver, for British Columbia, and for Canada. Although Canada scored high on the recent all-nations report card, it scored low on culture, history and heritage. Why destroy more of this precious asset?” – Margaret Atwood.
2) The house will become a writing centre, and be restored to it’s 1937 to 1942 era while Joy lived in the house as a young child. There will be a writers-in-residence program working in conjunction with writing associations across Canada. Special consideration will be considered for “Writers of Conscience”, who write on the topic of human rights and racial/cultural harmony/issues. We will create programs for author readings and tie in with city cultural festivals.
3) The history of the house itself provides a landmark to the Japanese Canadian internment – one of Canada’s darkest historical periods. There is no acknowledgment or memorial in Vancouver for this incident. Kogawa House is one of the few houses identified as having been confiscated by the govt. and the only house identified with a cultural and literary significance. This was the house that was taken away. This was the house that was yearned for and represented a time before Hate and Negative-Identity virtually destroyed the JC social structure. This was the house that inspired the writing of both Obasan and Naomi’s Road.
Here are recent news links generated after having Joy Kogawa as a keynote speaker at the “Order of Canada” luncheon organized by the Canadian Club, to honour BC’s 2005 appointees to the Order of Canada: