Marpole - Joy Kogawa's Obasan

Joy Kogawa's Obasan

Joy Kogawa's bestselling novel, Obasan, which tells the story of Canada's internment and persecution of its citizens of Japanese descent during World War II, partially takes place in Marpole, in a tiny bungalow located at 1450 West 64th Avenue. Joy Kogawa (née Nakayama, born 1935) lived there as a child, and in 2006 the house was purchased by The Land Conservancy of British Columbia following a nation-wide fundraising campaign. The 1912 house stands as a cultural and historical reminder of the war-time experience of Canadians of Japanese heritage, who were interned in remote camps and their property expropriated during World War II.

Today, the Historic Joy Kogawa House Society, a community-based group of arts supporters, operates a writer-in-residence program at the house purely on a volunteer basis. The writer-in-residence program has been under way since 2009 and during that time has enriched the literary community and fostered an appreciation for Canadian writing by bringing well-regarded professional writers in touch with a local community of writers, readers, and students. The writer-in-residence program celebrates the work of Joy Kogawa, which brought the war-time experience of Japanese-Canadians to general awareness among Canadians.