Here’s a transcript of CBC Radio One’s interview with Joy Kogawa about the Kogawa House project from my friend Ann-Marie Metten - also a coordinator for the Save Kogawa House campaign. ~~~ To her great pleasure the interview was broadcast twice on Boxing Day, first in the morning at 10 a.m., accompanying a half-hour interview with Leslie Uyeda - the artistic director of Vancouver Opera’s Naomi’s Road school program and the composer of music inspired by the haiku written as part of the Vancouver Public Library’s program to promote Obasan as the 2005 One Book One Vancouver choice. The interview with Joy Kogawa was also rebroadcast later in the day, on “Night Time Review” at 8 p.m. ~~~~~~    more »

Redress: The book by Roy Miki - addressing racial identity and its consequences

It's Boxing Day morning at Kalamalka Lake, and I am not at any Boxing Day sales in Vancouver. I am reading Roy Miki's book Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian redress movement. Roy is an amazing person. In 1994 I interviewed him for an article in the Simon Fraser University student newspaper "The Peak".

I am stunned by the atrocities and restrictions placed on the Canadians of Japanese descent, even though I have read many accounts. I nod knowingly when I read that Asian Canadians were "racialized" in the 1900's - particularly by the Anti-Asiastic League who wanted to create and maintain a "white Vancouver" despite the presence of First Nations peoples. I read about the 1907 meeting at City Hall, that erupted into a riot in Chinatown, where stores were attacked and damaged, before the white rioters headed to Japantown where they were repelled by a prepared community.

This was the Vancouver where my maternal grandmother was raised, soon after being born in 1910 in Victoria BC. This was the political and social climate where my paternal grandfather was given a "Chinaman's Chance" of defending a non-guilty plea for drug trafficking, because the RCMP wanted to make an example of him as one of Victoria's top community leaders that they could "take down." This was the BC, where the $500 head tax was only applied to ethnic Chinese in an effort to keep "the Yellow Peril" away from "British" Vancouver, where the early city fathers, provincial fathers and leaders of Canadian Federation had emmigrated from Scotland and England, seeking a better life.... just as the Chinese had, leaving behind a corrupt Imperial government, famines, to come to "Gum San" - the gold mountain of opportunity.

In the first chapeter of Redress, Roy Miki tells the story of Tomekichi (Tomey) Homma "naturalized as a British Subject" in Canada, who tried to have his name put on the voter's list, but was turned down no doubt, because of the stipulation in Section 8 of the Provincial Election Act which stated: "No Chinaman, Japanese, or Indian shall have his name placed on the Register of Voters for any Electoral District, or be entitled to vote in any election."

Homma decided to challange the ruling on October 19th, 1900, but was eventurally denied by a lengthy court case and both the BC and Canadian governments. The Privy council at the time had stated that "Orientals... were so inassimilable that they were incapable of participating in the democratic process." (Miki, p. 33-34)

The Victoria Times Colonist newspaper at the time had written "We are relieved from the possibility of having polling booths swampd by a horde of Orientals who are totally uniftted either by custom of education to exercise the ballot, and whose voting would completely demoralise politics... they have not the remotest idea of what a democratic and representative government is, and are quite incapable of taking part in it." (Miki, p 28)

My great-great-grandfather Rev. Chan Yu Tan, was educated at the Wesleyan Mission in Hong Kong, and arrived in Canada in 1896, following his elder brother the Rev. Chan Sing Kai - the first Chinese ordained in Canada. The Chinese Methodist Church helped teach the Chinese immigrants how to speak English. A favourite story that my grandmother tells me is that her granfather would tell his family, "We are in Canada now - we should do things the Canadian way." In every generation of his 6 descendants in Canada, there have been inter-racial marriages with Caucasians. In fact, descendants in the 6th and 7th generation are now only 1/4 and 1/8 Chinese.

Yes, Canada has had a racist history, and yes Asians have successfully integrated and assimilated. But is this alone a case for redress for past wrongs? Certainly not. The case for redress is that in the 17 years since the 1988 redress settlement there has been tremendous healing in the Japanese Canadian community. In his final chapter, Miki shares that in order to become fully Canadian, the community had to forge an identity of being Japanese-Canadian through both internment and redress.

Similarly, my grandmother's younger brother Daniel Lee, a WW2 veteran, has consistenly requested that the Canadian government apologize for the head tax. Our family elders did not have the privilege or franchise to vote in the country of their birth until 1947, while other families were kept apart because of the consequences of the head tax and Chinese Exclusion Act. I am aware that as I have grown up in Canada, I have always been racialized, as my uncles before me who were denied jobs and university admittance. These were the real consequences of the head tax and continued legislated and socialized racism. Reading the accounts of the Japanese Canadians during internment, I can only marvel at what my own ancestors endured from arrivals in 1888 to 1947, when they were finally able to vote.

Joy Kogawa featured on CBC Radio "Sounds Like Canada" on Boxind Day morning 10:30am

Joy Kogawa is interviewed about her childhood home and the Save Kogawa House campaign. Kathryn Gretzinger met Joy at the house at 1450 West 64th Avenue earlier in November for this special interview. Joy also went to the CBC radio studio for some further interviews.

Listen to CBC Radio 690 AM in Vancouver - or on the web - www.cbc.ca 10:35am Dec 26, 2005

It has been such a pleasure getting to know Joy this year of 2005. The first time I met her was in 1986, at Expo 86's Folk Pavillion for a poetry and book reading. The next time I saw her was at a reading at the Vancouver Public Library in summer 2004 for Centre A. I was amazed at how tiny and fragile she was. But over the course of this year, I have gotten to know how, humble, warm and sincere she is. She truly is amazed at all the attention she has recieved from the Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver Opera, Vancouver City Hall, and the media for the Save Kogawa House campaign.

Some significant Joy Kogawa Events I have attended for 2005 include:

May at the opening event for One Book One Vancouver at the Vancouver Public Library;
Joining Save Kogawa House committee in September

September ACWW Ricepaper Magazine 10th Anniversary Dinner where ACWW presented Joy with a Community Builder's Award in September;

Vancouver Arts Awards which included performances from opera Naomi's Road

Reading at Word on the Street for final One Book One Vancouver event

Oct 1 - opening weekend for the premiere of Naomi's Road Opera;

Nov 1st - Obasan Cherry Tree Day at City Hall - with cherry tree planting

Nov 3rd - presentation at City Hall, asking for an unprecedented 120 day delay for demolition of Kogawa House

Nov 12th Save Kogawa House - Awareness concert with Harry Aoki, Raymond Chow and performance of Naomi's Road

Here are some upcoming media coverage for Save Kogawa House events.

CBC Radio One, Sounds like Canada, Dec 26, 2005, 10am - 11am .
Vancouver Sun, Reporter Kevin Griffin, Dec 30 or 31, 2006.
CBC Radio One, “On the Coast,” Early January 2006 (air date to be confirmed).
Shaw Cable, “The Express,” January 4, 2006, 6pm and 8pm.
Common Ground Magazine, January 2006 issue.
OMNI TV: BC, “The Standard,” January 11, 2006, 9pm and January 12, 8am and 12 noon.

This morning the Save Kogawa House committee met with federal Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh who is MP for Vancouver South which includes the child hood home of Joy Kogawa at 1450 West 64th Avenue. Minister Dosanjh was clearly moved by our presentation, committment to multiculturalism, and enthusiasm for turning Kogawa House into a writing centre for the benefit of all Canadians, while simultaneouly paying respect to an important time in our history. He next spoke about how Western Canada has been short-changed in Canada Council grants for the arts. He said he was shocked at the statistics, when he discovered that BC and the Maritimes were under-represented, as most Canada Council grants went to Ontario and Quebec. He vowed to help us in whatever ways possible given the constraints of the present election season, and noting that after the election on Jan 23, we would only have about 60 days left to save Kogawa House from demolition.    more »

VANCOUVER, BC – Community efforts to save Joy Kogawa’s childhood home from the wrecking ball moved into a new phase today as The Land Conservancy of British Columbia (TLC) has agreed to lead the campaign to acquire the house and secure its protection. "The Kogawa house is a very important part of British Columbia’s heritage," said TLC’s Executive Director Bill Turner, "and we are determined to see it protected. As of today, we have only 118 days to raise the funds needed to achieve this. We will need to raise $1.25 million to ensure the future of this site, and we’ll be getting to work immediately."    more »