The language of redress: the memory of the internment in Japanese American and Canadian literature

Abstract

This thesis is a comparative reading of the novels No-No Boy and Obasan, written respectively by the American author John Okada and the Canadian poet and novelist Joy Kogawa, both of Japanese descent. These novels discuss the Japanese American and Canadian internments during World War II. The object is to analyze how these two novels both reflect and contribute to making the collective and cultural memory of these groups by discussing the effects of the internment during the war and afterwards. First, I discuss concepts such as collective memory, a domain made up of individual memories which binds and determines them, and cultural memory, a set of cultural manifestations chosen as symbols of the memory of groups, be they nations or minorities. After that, I discuss how literature, more specifically prose fiction, can deal with memories by allowing different points of view and giving voice to individuals who might otherwise find no other means of expression. Based on that, I analyze how No-No Boy and Obasan use fiction to address the sequels of the internment by presenting characters that were directly affected by it. The narratives allow Japanese Americans and Canadians to present their views of the events, question the prejudices they faced and the military necessity alleged by the authorities, as well as to show their effort to be recognized as what they already considered themselves to be, Americans and Canadians in culture and loyalty. Okada's and Kogawa's narratives interfere directly with media and government discourses of the time by quoting and refuting them in order to bring to light the truth about the reasons of the internment and to humanize our knowledge of the its consequences. In this way, No-No Boy and Obasan contribute to the collective memory of Japanese Americans and Canadians and to our understanding of the struggle of ethnic minorities in the United States and Canada.