Born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1935 as the daughter of Lois (Yao) and Rev. Gordon Goichi Nakayama, Joy Kogawa is a poet, essayist, novelist, and a Nisei-a second-generation Japanese Canadian. When World War II broke out, she, like the rest of her family, was forced from the coast. Canada and its allies were at war with Germany, Italy, and Japan and regarded Canadians of Japanese heritage with suspicion. Due to these circumstances, Kogawa bad to attend grade school in the internment camp at Slocan, British Columbia. Her 1981 autobiographical novel, Obasan, relates her life as a Canadian during World War II. The novel is the first, in Canadian letters, to deal with this painful time and bas won several awards. In that novel Kogawa makes peace with the injustice of the internment of herself and others.....
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