Cultural Identity and Female Immigrants: Joy Kogawa’s Obasan Sudha Swarnakar Recebido 13, set. 2010 / Aprovado 10, jan. 2011 Resumo: A construção problemática da identidade de imigrantes femininos, a sua tentativa de integrar-se no novo ambiente criado pela Política da Imigração Canadense do “inter- nment” japonês durante a Segunda Guerra Mundial e o seu protesto contra esta situação humilhante são o foco do presente trabalho. A obra Obasan de Joy Kogawa apresenta uma situação na qual os imigrantes são postos em uma situação que cria conflito. O enfrenta- mento direto entre os imigrantes canadenses e os canadenses nativos em uma colocação desigual, desequilibrada, uma situação política específica, lembra a relação de “victim/ victimizer” discutida por Homi Bhabha e o que ele chama “a ambivalência na relação” no contexto do discurso pós-colonial. O potencial de resistência e subversão, nesta tensão, que emerge, é de particular relevância para este trabalho. O trabalho destaca a diferença entre os Issei – residentes canadenses nascidos ou criados no Japão – e os Nissei – as pessoas do origem japonesa nascidas e criadas no Canadá para mostrar como isto os leva a adotar medidas diferentes. O argumento é construído em torno do papel da cultura que explica como eles reagem a esta situação específica, o protesto silencioso de uma tia e a resistência aberta e direta à opressão ou injustiça assumida por outra tia. Concluimos que as duas obasans ou tias, na obra de Kogawa, apresentam duas formas da resistência femi- nina à internação no Canadá que são arraigadas nas culturas nas quais elas foram criadas. Palavras chave: identidade; cultura; imigrantes femininos; “internment” japonês; Segunda Guerra Mundial. One of the main themes of Joy Kogawa’s novel Obasan (1981) is cons- tructed around the ambivalence of identity formation, constructed or imposed; Japanese immigrants/ Japanese Canadians and the Canadian citizens. Kogawa’s text focuses, on the one hand, on the Canadian landscape and, on the other hand, it shows how the Japanese Canadian’s forced evacuation from their homes and their 160 Sudha Swarnakar properties affected the identity formation of these people. Raising the questions of immigrants, citizenship and national identity the novel knits around three main female characters; obasan,1 Aunt Emily and Naomi. Focusing on these three fe- male characters this paper discusses the problematic identity formation of female immigrants/ citizens, their attempt to integrate into the new life situation created by the Canadian Immigration Policies for the intern Japanese during the World War II and their protest against this humiliating situation. As critics (Fujita, Cheung, Amoko) have observed Kogawa’s novel is a do- cument of silence located within the multicultural narrative tradition. However, as Coral Howells (1992) has pointed out, it would be more appropriate to define the predicament of the immigrant in Canada as “transcultural” rather than multicultural since this condition implies a constant sliding between native culture and adopted culture. Such a situation gives right of entry in two worlds which at times can be interpreted as a “great privilege”. (HUTCHEON; RICHMOND, 1990, p. 99). Kogawa’s Obasan, looking from a different angle, presents the difficult situation in which the immigrants are posed.2 The Pearl Harbor episode suddenly changed their reception in a society they had lived for a long time or in case of Japanese Canadians, who, where they were born, are seen as enemies. The para- doxical situation is explicit in one of the Kogawa’s character, Stephen’s, riddle: “We are both the enemy and not the enemy”. (Kogawa, 1981, p. 70). This new identity not only snatches away everything they had constructed as immigrants or citizens of that country but also places them in an ambivalent situation where they themselves questions: who are they? Were they Japanese immigrants? Or Were they Canadian citizens? The direct encounter between the immigrant Canadians and the native Canadians in an unequal, unbalanced setting, a specific political situation, leads to a victim/victimizer relationship discussed by Homi Bhabha and poses them in what he calls the “ambivalence in the relationship” in the context of post-colonial discourse.3 The potential for resistance and subversion, in this imba- lanced tension which emerges, is of particular relevance for present study, since the paper highlights the difference between the Issei--Canadian residents born or raised in Japan--and the Nisei--people of Japanese extraction born and raised in Canada which leads them to adopt to different measures. Immigrants in Canadian Literature, similar to immigrants in any country, are also faced with feelings of isolation from society and the land. Obasan (Naomi’s aunt) and uncle Sam are Cultural Identity and Female Immigrants: Joy Kogawa’s Obasan 161 the example of how immigrants are socially isolated from society in the novel. The history of Japanese immigration in Canada starts as early as 1870.4 Until the United States were attacked by the Japanese military force, for almost a century, they lived as “immigrants”, and, being immigrants, they remained invisi- ble to public eye. It is curious how something like Pearl Harbor or 11 September affects people’s lives more specifically those of the immigrants/ citizens. Those tragic events snatch away not only their citizenship rights, but also tears off their “invisibility” or” unmarked identity”, and places them in a position where they are suddenly transformed into a “devil” or most “dangerous criminals” who are to be confined into Internment Camps or imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Their citizenship rights are stripped off immediately and, as if it is not enough, they are made to be ashamed of something they did not commit. This must have been the reason why, for a long time, the Canadian Japane- se people, victims of internment, and their offspring kept silence about this dark episode of their life. Although Asian Americans, including those of Japanese he- ritage, have lived in the north American hemisphere for more than 150 years, too little about their experiences, their history, the country of their heritage, and their literature is reflected in the American or Canadian writing, be it history books or literature. Only recently a number of works on the topic started to appear. The young Canadian Japanese, not so much compelled by their ancestor’s cultural identity, decide to break this silence. Their decision to give voice to this bitter experience can be seen in a significant production of literary works on the topic. For the last thirty years or so a great number of literary works have focused their attention on the Canadian/ American Japanese and the World War II and the experience of internment of Japanese Americans or Japanese Canadians has suddenly become the center of attraction of the young Canadian and American Japanese writers. The Japanese people in Brazil also went through this humiliating experience, but the depiction of Japanese Brazilian experience is still waiting to come out.5 Many of these works, written mostly by the Japanese American or Canadian writers such as The Dream of Water by Kyoko Mori, Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Warrior Woman (1976), the autobiographical novel The Ink-Keeper’s Apprentice by Allen Say, published in 1979. Joy Kogawa’s Obasan (1981), David Hwang’s Madame Butterfly (1989), Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club (1989), Salisbury, Graham’s Under the Blood-Red Sun (1994), and Frank Chin’s epic Gunga Din Highway 162 Sudha Swarnakar (1994) have helped establish a creditable Asian American presence in the world of contemporary letters. These works are more like historical fiction in which the main characters are young Japanese Canadians or Americans born in Canada or United States. As a citizen of these countries, their tone is of reconciliation, of minimizing the cultural differences between their new country and their ancestor’s country, as they live with expectations of their Japanese parents and grandparents and learn about the country of their heritage as one who has not lived there. Embe- dded in Say’s work, as in those of Mori, are cultural contrasts conveyed by authors who lived in Japan until they came to the United States as teens. In Kogawa one gets the pre and post World War Japanese experience it is the feeling of the next generation, who is strongly tied with its American or Canadian identity and denies accepting this discrimination. Most of these novels written by first generation American-born or Canadian- born Japanese (Nisei) focus on the shock of Pearl Harbor, the internment years, and the anti-Japanese feelings that continued after the war. The narrator is often a child who gives details of the forced evacuation of Japanese who were allowed to take only what they could carry; prized possessions lost or sold for a pittance. The sense of loss is quite strong in these narratives, but nowhere one observes any grudge against the Canadians or Americans. In Obasan, Kogawa presents not only the loss but the pain one feels at such occasions. Her protagonist is “tired of living between deaths and funerals, weighted with decorum, unable to shout, or sin or dance, unable to scream or swear unable to laugh, unable to breathe out loud.” (Kogawa, 1981, p. 183). From the beginning Kogawa’s novel received a warm welcome both from the readers and the critics. The aspect that called immediate attention was the poetic style of the novel, the depiction of silence and the presentation of the natu- ral beauty of the Canadian landscape. With a few notable exceptions, Kogawa’s depiction of Japanese subjects has received very little attention.6 It seems critics tend to ignore the political implications of Kogawa’s work, effectively eliding “culture” and “race” as elements of her novel.