Japanese-Canadian wartime history through Joy Kogawa’s Obasan

This article intends to investigate the narration of historical facts under new perspectives trough the novel Obasan, from the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. The choice of the mentioned novel is due to the fact that it enables the observation of the manners the concepts of identity, memory and representation interact to portray new representations of a determined people by the reinterpretation of historical facts. Throughout the article it will be analyzed the varied narrative strategies Joy Kogawa employs to represent new versions of facts related to Japanese Canadians and their internment promoted by Canadian government in inner Canada during World War II. It will also be observed the manners through which fiction can collaborate to a people’s search for redemption with their traumatic past and consequent actions towards improvements for their present.