Kogawa House cherry tree at Vancouver city hall is given a plaque on the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian redress.

"Friendship Tree" plaque at Vancouver City Hall for the "Kogawa House cherry tree" graft - photo Ann-Marie Metten.

Sixty-six years ago, in 1942, Japanese-Canadians were "evacuated" from Canada's Pacific coast and sent to internment camps for the duration of WW2.

in 1981, Joy Kogawa wrote her first novel Obasan, the first novel to address the issue of the Japanese-Canadian internment.  Joy Kogawa would receive the Order of Canada in 1986 for her literary acheivement, what Roy Miki called "a novel that I believe is the most important literary work of the past 30 years for understanding Canadian history."

2005 was a busy year for Joy Kogawa.  Obasan was the "One Book One Vancouver" selection for the Vancouver Public Library.  "Naomi's Road", a mini-opera based on her children's novel debuted by the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble.   And the childhood home of Joy Kogawa, which she had always hoped her family could return to after the war, was threatened with demolition.

And on November 1st,at Vancouver City Hall, there was the Joy Kogawa Cherry Tree Planting".
Then city councilor Jim Green accompanied Joy Kogawa in turning the sod.  Jim had helped Joy take the original grafts from the tree a year before.  They were accompanied by Vancouver chief librarian Paul Whitney, and Vancouver Opera managing director James Wright.

On November 3rd, a presentation was made to Vancouver City Council to do whatever they could to stop or delay the proposed demolition of Joy Kogawa's childhood home.  An unprecedented motion was passed to delay the processing of the demolition permit by 3 months.  read Kogawa House: Vancouver Council votes unaminously to create 120 day delay to demolition application

Now there is a plaque to officially recognize and commemorate the significance of this young cherry tree.  It is grafted from the original cherry tree from Joy Kogawa's childhood home.


Joy Kogawa with City Librarian Paul Whitney, Opera Managing Director James Wright, and City Councillor Jim Green - photo Deb Martin

On November 3rd, a presentation was made to Vancouver City Council to do whatever they could to stop or delay the proposed demolition of Joy Kogawa's childhood home.  An unprecedented motion was passed to delay the processing of the demolition permit by 3 months.  read Kogawa House: Vancouver Council votes unaminously to create 120 day delay to demolition application.

In May of 2006, The Land Conservancy of BC purchased the house at 1450 West 64th Ave, to help preserve the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa.

In April 2008, Joy released a children's picture book titled Naomi's Tree.  It encompasses the stories of the WW2 internment, and also the saving of her childhood home, while reflecting on the friendship of a young child and cherry try as they both age and meet again.  This book tells the story of the "Friendship Tree,"  Joy Kogawa reads "Naomi's Tree" at Vancouver Kidsbooks for the Vancouver book launch.

It seems very fitting that a plaque at Vancouver City Hall be placed at the baby cherry tree on the 20th anniversary of the Japanese-Canadian redress settlement.

Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan, has written A Place of Compassion for her submission to the Dream Vancouver conference and website, organized by Think City. While Joy will not be attending the conference, I will be as one of the directors of the Joy Kogawa House Society. Dream Vancouver is an all-day conference which will take participants from their dreams about Vancouver to a possible agenda for change. The conference will be facilitated by Bliss Browne, internationally-renowned speaker and president of Imagine Chicago. Former City of Vancouver Co-Director of Current Planning Larry Beasley is key note speaker. Ms. Browne will then facilitate a discussion-based session which will take participants through a series of questions designed to bring them to a collective vision of what the city could be.    more »

Beyond the Book: a research study on "One Book" programs

Beyond the Book website lists information about the trans-national phenomenon of "mass reading events," our name for book events that are meant to bring readers of one city, region or nation together by reading and sharing the same book.

I was invited to meet with two of the researchers, North American director DeNel Rehberg Sedo (Mount Saint Vincent University, Canada), and Anouk Lang post-doctoral fellow.  I quickly contacted Larry Wong, as we were the community representatives/experts on the inaugural One_Book_One_Vancouver program in 2002 which featured The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy. We were great additions to the OBOV committee as Larry was a childhood friend of Wayson, and I was a vice-president of Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop, and also volunteering with Asian Heritage Month in Vancouver.


Here's a picture of (l-r): Larry Wong, Wayson Choy, Anouk Lang, Todd Wong (me) and DeNel Rehberg Sedo - photo courtesy of Larry Wong.

The Beyond the Book project seems to be a fascinating study of the mass book clubs for an entire city, such as One_Book_One_Vancouver, CBC Radio's Canada Reads, Seattle Reads, and One Book One Chicago.

It was a great privilege to be part of the inaugural One Book One Vancouver project.  I was invited by Community Programming Director Janice Douglas.  Also on the committee was Corrine Durston, then the Division Head Librarian for VPL Popular Reading, and Lisl Jauk, manager for The Word on the Street Book and Magazine Festival. It was an excellent exercise in community networking, as early meetings also included the VPL communications staff, as well as a representative from Douglas and McIntyre Pulishing, which published The Jade Peony.

Our discussions acknowledge the incredible creative energy of our inaugural commitee, which recognized that we were on an adventure and creating something brand new, never before done in Canada.  We created programming to help make The Jade Peony come alive. DeNel really liked my phrase "to turn the book inside out."  Larry highlighted "The Jade Peony Walking Tour" that was created by Vancouver historia John Atkins, and was organized through the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens.

Wayson Choy spoke about the One Book program from an author's experience.  During the program, Wayson was simply amazed as The Jade Peony, was pushed back up on the BC Book Publishers'  "Best Seller" lists.  Wayson stated that OBOV (Jade Peony) committe was an important and unique program, devoid of egos, but especially strong because of the presence of community activists, and strong connections throughout the community.

I emphasized how incredible the event "Dim Sum with Ways Choy & Friends" was.  I had scouted the Floata Chinese restaurant as the best possible site.  Larry invited friends of Wayson's who had been the basis for some of the composite characters in the story.  As well, Larry showed a video greeting from author Carol Shields, who had been one of Wayson's teachers at the UBC School of Creative Writing.  I also recounted setting up reading events titled "Stories from Chinatown" featuring authors Paul Yee, SKY Lee, and Jim Wong-Chu, as well as "More Stories from Chinatown" featuring poet Sean Gunn, historian enthusiast Dr. Wallance Chung, and Roy Mah - founder of Chinatown News.

I also commented about the programming for the 2005 One Book One Vancouver selection, which was Joy Kogawa's novel, Obasan.  Early in January, 2005, I wrote a letter on the Kogawa Homestead website stating 20 reasons why Obasan should be the 2005 OBOV choice.  By September 2005, I was an active member and coordinator for the Save Kogawa House campaign to rescue Joy Kogawa's childhood home from demolition, and to turn it into a national historic landmark for all Canadians to share.

check out my articles on the OBOV program featuring Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan.
http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog?cmd=search&keywords=
%22one+book%22%2C+obasan%2C+2004%2C+joy+kogawa

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 »

"This is almost exactly what happened with Japanese Canadian redress. My new/old novel, "Emily Kato" (a re-write of Itsuka and just published) describes the panic when government tried to pull the rug out from the redress movement. But we did stop it." wrote Joy Kogawa to me in an e-mail....   more »

This Saturday, Naomi's Road, the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble production of Joy Kogawa's children's story plays at Nikkei Centre in Burnaby - just off Kingsway. It's a wonderful production, full of hope and tears, great singing, staging and acting.   more »

This past week CBC Radio host Mark Forsythe of BC Almanac, has been promoting his new book Almanac's 100 Greatest British Columbians. This is a BC Version of CBC television's The Greatest Canadian. The names are all listed by categories with no numerical value. BC's top ten literary writers include Joy Kogawa, George Bowering, Wayson Choy, Dorothy Livesay   more »

Organizers of the drive to preserve the childhood home of novelist and poet Joy Kogawa were jubilant after Vancouver City Council voted unanimously on November 3 to grant a 120-day demolition delay order to preserve the home and to recognize its historical and cultural heritage. The four month period will allow the Save Kogawa House Committee to raise funds to purchase the property and convert it into a major centre for Canadian and international writers.    more »

The concert event went well today. About 100 people in the Alice Mackay Room, at the Vancouver Public Library + CTV coverage. Pretty good for very short notice. The event started with Harry Aoki and Alison Nishihara playing Pachabel's Canon on harmonica and piano. Then I welcomed everybody and explained what the SAVE KOGAWA HOUSE committee was all about. I also told people that we were very grateful for the Vancouver Opera Touring Ensemble gifting us with a performance. I had seen excerpts at a Roy Miki lecture, the Vancouver Arts Awards, and still I had tears in my eyes when I saw performances on opening weekend and just last week at the library.   more »

Ricepaper magazine is Canada's only nationally distributed magazine covering Asian Canadian arts and culture. Editor Jessica Gin Jade and Publisher Jim Wong-Chu were interviewed on CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada by Sheila Rogers on Thursday Morning. Jenny Uechi, writer and managing editor attended the November 12th Celebration and Awareness concert for Save Kogawa House. Jenny wrote: "Naomi's Road" a huge success at Vancouver Public Library!   more »

Saturday November 12, 2005 2:00pm Vancouver Public Library 350 West Georgia Street Alice Mackay Room Admission is free, all are welcome.    more »

This afternoon Vancouver City Council voted unanimously to grant an unprecedented 120-day delay of demolition for 1450 West 64th Avenue, the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. The present home owner bought the house in 2003, unaware that the Save Kogawa Homestead committee was trying to raise funds to turn the house into a writers’ retreat. The owner has now decided to demolish and rebuild on the site, prompting the now renamed Save Kogawa House committee to action, soliciting support from writing and arts organizations across the country.   more »

The following is the basic text of my presentation to Vancouver City Council's Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, November 3rd, 2005. Hello Council members and guests Thank you for receiving our request for a delay of demolition for 1450 West 64th Ave, known as “Kogawa House.” Thank you also to council for attending the Joy Kogawa Cherry Tree planting and ceremony that took place here on Tuesday. Save Kogawa House committee is a local and national advocacy committee in existence for two years since Kogawa House first came on the market.   more »

Just watched Radio Canada - French television Our segment looks GREAT! We taped it! - now to digitalize and convert to a webcast... hmmm.... new technology.... I am having enough of a challenge working on the new weblog www.kogawahouse.com Shots showed the house, Obasan cover, One Book One Vancouver stickers, etc... Short interviews with Todd, and Joy, pictures of Ann-Marie, Diane Switzer, our lunch meeting at Kirin Restaurant with Marion Quednau, Jackie Byrn and my girlfriend Deb Martin.   more »

GOOD NEWS today! We had a good committee presentation with good support from Vancouver Heritage Foundation, Alliance for Arts and Culture, Writers Union of Canada and Periodical Writers Association of Canada. CBC Radio-Canada Television (french language) even showed up to film us during our lunch meeting at Kirin Restaurant, as we made our presentations, and as we shared congratulations with each other afterwards.   more »

OUR VISION FOR KOGAWA HOUSE The Save Kogawa House Committee believes it can preserve that heritage by purchasing the property from its current owner and converting the home into a writers-in-residence centre. Ten writers associations representing several thousand writers have endorsed our proposal and would select members from their organizations to reside in the house for a period of approximately one month each. This is their vision of the house as well: Brian Brett, Chair of the Writers Union of Canada: “The Writers’ Union of Canada, representing over 1,500 professional writers, supports the effort to save Joy Kogawa’s childhood home on 1450 West 64th Avenue in Vancouver from demolition, and would like to encourage its conversion into a major writers centre for Canadian and international writers. Vancouver would greatly benefit by designating the Joy Kogawa House as a literary landmark and establishing it as a writers-in-residence centre in which Canadian writers and writers from abroad could write first hand about our complex and evolving multi- and inter-cultural society and how different values and traditions can peacefully interact.”   more »

Group rallies to save Kogawa home: Heritage house featured in classic novel chronicling Japanese internment in 1942 By ROD MICKLEBURGH Wednesday, November 2, 2005 Page S1 VANCOUVER -- Time is running out on the childhood home of celebrated Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. The modest, but still well-appointed, bungalow where Ms. Kogawa spent six happy years before her family's anguished internment in 1942 is under threat of demolition, a victim of history and Vancouver's high property prices. The house features prominently in Ms. Kogawa's prize-winning 1981 novel Obasan, a heart-rending, barely fictionalized memoir of her internment experience that was recognized by Quill and Quire as one of the most influential Canadian books of the 20th century.   more »

Today, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell pronounced November 1st as "Obasan Cherry Tree Day." Campbell read the proclamation in celebration of the planting of a cherry tree graft from the childhood home of author Joy Kogawa. Mayor Campbell acknowledged Councillor Jim Green who spearheaded the tree planting initiative, going to the house with Kogawa last year to take the tree clippings that were nurtured for a year for the planting. Also speaking at the ceremony was Paul Whitney, City Librarian, Vancouver Public Library, and James W. Wright, General Director, Vancouver Opera. Joy's novel Obasan was the 2005 choice for the library's award winning program One Book One Vancouver. James Wright said that when he came to Vancouver he was given a copy of the book "Great Canadian books of the century" written by Vancouver Public Library (1999) (ISBN 1550547364). He said that he read about Obasan, and it was one of the first books he read after arriving in Vanouver. Next he discovered Kogawa's children story Naomi's Road, and was so moved by it, he commisioned it as an opera. PICTURES!   more »

Tree planting at City Hall today: Cherry Tree graft from Kogawa House

Today at 1pm, Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell and city councillors will plant a cherry tree graft taken from the old cherry tree at Kogawa House, 1450 West 64th Ave.

The cherry tree and the house figure prominently in both books Obasan and Naomi's Road, written by Joy Kogawa.  The cherry tree is getting old and diseased now, so grafts were taken to help preserve its memory.  Unfortunately, the tree was pruned severely last fall.  But imagine 5 year old Joy Kogawa, swinging and climbing from a younger tree, still full of vibrant life and cherries. (Read one of my favorite books Shel Silverstein's "The Giving Tree.")

Vancouver City council passed a motion to plant the tree graft in September - the same week an inquiry for demolition of Kogawa House was made.

Also attending the tree planting will be Paul Whitney, Chief Librarian of Vancouver Public Library, and James Wright, General Directof of Vancouver Opera.  Obasan was VPL's 2005 choice for One Book One Vancouver program, and Naomi's Road premiered on September 30th, as a 45 minute opera commissioned to tour BC schools.

Also listen to CBC Radio's "On the Coast" 4-6pm, Paul Grant's Art Report interviewed me yesterday about saving Kogawa House.

Cherry Tree at Kogawa House - photo by Don Montgomery

Cherry Tree at Kogawa House - photo by Don Montgomery

Cherry Tree at Kogawa House - photo by Don Montgomery

Vancouver Heritage Foundation accepting donations for Kogawa House

A Donations page for Kogawa House has now been set up through the Vancouver Heritage Foundation.
http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/Kogawa.html

A short story about the history of the house and the efforts to save it is listed

Vancouver Heritage Foundation
844 West Hastings Street Vancouver BC V6C 1C8

604-264-9642
email mail@vancouverheritagefoundation.org

Joy Kogawa House Facing Bulldozer - Press Release Oct 27, 2005


The residence at 1450 West 64th Avenue, former childhood home of author Joy Kogawa, now marked for demolition plans. - photo by Don Montgomery

- For immediate release    -

 “Joy Kogawa House Facing Bulldozer”

October 28, 2005

Only a week after writers from across Canada and around the world were celebrated at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival, the childhood home of Vancouver- born Joy Kogawa, one of Canada’s most eminent authors, is in increased danger of being bulldozed into the ground.

Gerry McGeough, Senior Heritage Planner in the City of Vancouver Planning Department, has confirmed that the current owner of Kogawa's former childhood home on 1450 West 64th Avenue has drawn up architectural plans for the redevelopment of the site including demolition of the Kogawa house. Processing a development and demolition application by the City takes less than four weeks.

McGeough will recommend to the Vancouver City Council Standing Committee on Planning and Environment on November 3 that City Council recognize the heritage value of the Marpole property and issue a 120-day demolition delay order as allowed by section 591 of the City Charter. The meeting is open to the public. The Save Kogawa House Committee, formed when the home first went up for sale in September of 2003, will also ask the Planning and Environment Committee to urge City Council to pass the 120-day demolition delay order.

The Committee has contacted professional writers organizations across Canada to support the drive to save Kogawa's childhood home as a Vancouver literary landmark and convert it into a major writers-in-residence centre for Canadian and international writers. This support from eight associations, representing several thousand professional writers, will be released shortly. For Kogawa, the 1450 West 64th Avenue property became a symbol of lost hope and happiness after she, at age six, and her family were removed from their home in 1942 as part of the forced evacuations and internment of over 20,000 Japanese-Canadians during World War II. The house is featured in the award-winning novel Obasan and the children’s story Naomi's Road, which premiered on September 30 as Vancouver Opera's second-ever commissioned original work and is now touring to 140 schools and community centres throughout B.C.

“The destruction of the Kogawa home would be a great loss of cultural heritage for Vancouver, for British Columbia, and for Canada,” Margaret Atwood declared at the Vancouver International Writers Festival on October 13. “Although Canada scored high on the recent all-nations report card, it scored low on culture, history and heritage. Why destroy more of this precious asset?”

The Save Kogawa House Committee reactivated when it was alerted on September 21st that a demolition application was expected.  Two years ago the committee tried to raise funds to buy the house and persuade the federal government to protect the cultural landmark, but became dormant when the owner made no plans for demolition at the time.  The committee seeks to preserve the Kogawa House as a Canadian and international writer’s centre, similar to the Pierre Berton House in Dawson City and the Margaret Laurence House in Neepawa, for the cultural heritage of future generations.

“There is only one literary monument erected in Vancouver for a Canadian author," says BC Bookworld publisher Alan Twigg, "It is the Pauline Johnson memorial in Stanley Park.” Johnson died in 1913.

Kogawa is the recipient of many awards including the Order of Canada in 1986. Roy Miki, Simon Fraser University Professor and 2003 Governor General's Award Winner for Poetry, has called Obasan the most important literary work of the past 30 years for understanding Canadian history.  In 2005 Obasan was selected by the Vancouver Public Library for its One Book One Vancouver program, encouraging all Vancouverites to read this single book. 

Mayor Larry Campbell and members of Vancouver City Council will plant a cutting from Joy Kogawa’s cherry tree from the childhood home featured in Obasan in the garden of City Hall November 1 to commemorate the experience of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. Paul Whitney, City Librarian of the Vancouver Public Library, James Wright, General Director of Vancouver Opera, and Joy Kogawa will also participate. The public tree planting ceremony takes place in the City Hall garden, north of City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue.

If City Council passes the demolition delay order, the Save Kogawa House Committee will raise funds to purchase the property.  The Vancouver Heritage Foundation has set up a fund to save the Kogawa house and will issue charitable receipts for donations. All donations to the Joy Kogawa house rescue receive a tax receipt for the full amount of the donation. Cheques should be made out to “Vancouver Heritage Foundation” and mailed to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, 844 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. V6C 1C8. Donors are asked to indicate on the cheque memo line: “Save Kogawa House.” Donations can also be made on-line on the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s website
http://www.vancouverheritagefoundation.org/kogawa.html
 
If the Vancouver City Council does not vote to delay demolition, the house may be demolished within weeks.  It then becomes the latest casualty of Vancouver's short-term memory in a climate where arts, history and culture are left to fend for themselves. 

To prevent demolition, the Save the Kogawa House Committee is seeking community support and volunteers in Vancouver and across Canada in its drive to convert the house into a major writers centre. The Committee is also asking supporters to email the Vancouver City Council at mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca urging Mayor Campbell and City Councillors to prevent the demolition of the Kogawa House.

 

--30--



Photo credits:

The attached Dan Toulgoet Kogawa House_1519 Vancouver Courier 9 28 05.jpg of Joy Kogawa in front of her childhood home can be used by both non-profit organizations and commercial media. The photo credit must be: “Photo-Dan Toulgoet, Vancouver Courier”.
The photographer can be contacted at 604-630 3514 or at dtoulgoet@vancourier.com
The Don Montgomery 3.jpg can be used by non-profit organizations. The photo credit must be “Photo: © 2005 Don Montgomery”. Commercial media are asked to contact Don Montgomery at 604-878 6888 or don@asiancanadian.net


For further information contact:

Ann-Marie Metten, Vancouver Co-ordinator, Save Kogawa House Committee 
604-263 6586; ametten@telus.net

Todd Wong, Vancouver Committee spokesperson
604-240-7090; toddwcan@yahoo.com
 
Anton Wagner, Committee Chair
416-863-1209; awagner@yorku.ca

Gerry McGeough, Senior Heritage Planner, Planning Department, City of  Vancouver
604-873-7091; gerry.mcgeough@vancouver.ca

Diane Switzer, Executive Director, Vancouver Heritage Foundation 604-264-9642; diane@vancouverheritagefoundation.org