Historic Joy Kogawa House is a complicated space that holds narratives of segregation, racism, forced migration, isolation, and sexual abuse. The house is a reminder that silencing historical truths allows harmful acts to move forward unchecked.
Today, we acknowledge that history is repeating itself.
With the recent inhumane acts of forced migration and the ongoing crimes against humanity enacted in the United States, especially the forced imprisonment of people without due process in inhumane mega prisons, Historic Joy Kogawa House Society openly denounces these acts as a violation of human rights. In solidarity with the growing sentiment of like-minded individuals here in Canada, we encourage any who will listen to learn and reflect on the experiences of the treatment of the Japanese-Canadians whose history helps foretell the result of these callous actions.
Divisive ideologies around scapegoating, stereotyping, and fear mongering are at a fever pitch in the United States. We encourage Canadians to bear witness to parallels with the lived experience of the Nakayama family, as showcased in Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan.
In 1937, the Nakayama family – Gordon and Lois, and their two children, five-year-old Timothy and two-year-old Joy – moved into what is now known as the Historic Joy Kogawa House. The Nakayama family lived in the house from 1937 until mid-1942 when the Government of Canada, under the War Measures Act and the Defence of Canada Regulations, forced over 22,000 Canadians out of their homes. Labeled as alien enemies, the Nakayama family was never able to return.
Today the house exists as a unique live/work space for artists/writers with a commitment to amplifying marginalized stories and supporting artists at a critical stage of their work. The house is also a living museum showcasing artifacts from Japanese Canadian Internment. The property represents a convergence of art, healing, reconciliation, and resistance.
We, the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society, also acknowledge the parallels of oppression imposed upon many Japanese Canadians, to those of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations, upon whose traditional, ancestral, and unceded lands, the house is built upon. We further acknowledge the oppressive weight of trauma carried by survivors, descendants, and relations of sexual abuse inflicted on children by Gordon Goichi Nakayama.
Silence is a tool of disempowerment. Therefore, we are committed to amplifying voices from our past, survivors of human atrocities, to prepare all to resist hate and protect human rights.
“There is a silence that cannot speak.
There is a silence that will not speak.”~Obasan, J. Kogawa
Reference information below:
25. (10) If any enemy interned under the provisions of these Regulations has a wife or children living with or dependent upon him, such dependents may be permitted to accompany him.
Read Defence of Canada Regulations (DOCR) (1939)
11. No person who is held for deportation under this Act or under any regulation made thereunder, or is under arrest or detention as an alien enemy, or upon suspicion that he is an alien enemy, or to prevent his departure from Canada, shall be released upon bail or otherwise discharged or tried, without the consent of the Minister of Justice.
Read War Measures Act, SC (1914)
Now, therefore, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States, and Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, I hereby authorize and direct the Secretary of War, and the Military Commanders whom he may from time to time designate, whenever he or any designated Commander deems such action necessary or desirable, to prescribe military areas in such places and of such extent as he or the appropriate Military Commander may determine, from which any or all persons may be excluded, and with respect to which, the right of any person to enter, remain in, or leave shall be subject to whatever restrictions the Secretary of War or the appropriate Military Commander may impose in his discretion.
Read Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas (1942)
By the power vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, I have determined that the current situation at the southern border qualifies as an invasion under Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, I am issuing this Proclamation based on my express and inherent powers in Article II of the Constitution of the United States, and in faithful execution of the immigration laws passed by the Congress, and suspending the physical entry of aliens involved in an invasion into the United States across the southern border until I determine that the invasion has concluded.
Read Guaranteeing The States Protection Against Invasion (January 20, 2025)
I hereby direct the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Homeland Security to take all appropriate actions to expand the Migrant Operations Center at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay to full capacity to provide additional detention space for high-priority criminal aliens unlawfully present in the United States, and to address attendant immigration enforcement needs identified by the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security.
This memorandum is issued in order to halt the border invasion, dismantle criminal cartels, and restore national sovereignty.