Life
Born Joy Nozomi Nakayama in Vancouver, British Columbia, she was sent with her family to the internment camp for Japanese Canadians at Slocan during World War II. After the war she resettled with her family in Coaldale, Alberta.
She has worked to educate Canadians about the history of the internment camps, and was active in the fight for government redress.
Although the majority of her writing is poetry, Kogawa's best-known work is Obasan (1981), a semi-autobiographical novel. A sequel, Itsuka (1992), was rewritten and retitled Emily Kato (2005). Obasan has been named as one of the most important books in Canadian history by the Literary Review of Canada and was also listed by The Toronto Star in a "Best of Canada" feature. Obasan was later adapted into a children's book, Naomi's Road (1986), which, in turn, Vancouver Opera adapted into a 45-minute opera that toured elementary schools throughout British Columbia. The opera was also performed before the general public in the greater Vancouver area, Red Deer and Lethbridge, Alberta, Seattle, Washington, and Ottawa, Ontario at the National War Museum.
Although the novel Obasan describes Asian Canadian experiences, it is routinely taught in Asian American literature courses in the USA, due to its successful "integration of politically understanding and literary artistry" and "its authentication of a pan-Asian sensibility."
Kogawa currently divides her time between Vancouver and Toronto, Ontario, and is the 2012-13 Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto .
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