Category Archives: One Book One Vancouver: Joy Kogawa's Obasan

Letter from Rev. Tim Nakayama, Joy Kogawa's brother re: Origins of the Nakayama name

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Rev. Tim Nakayama and author Joy Kogawa – brother and sister

Dear Todd,

 
Thank you for posting those photos of us on your website.  That was fairly quick!
 
David Kogawa, who took the trouble to come down from Surrey to
Seattle to pick me up and bring me back home so that I could attend the
inaugural for OBOV on May 24, sent me  the web-page reference – http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/_archives/2005/5/26/888280.html 
 
You made a common mistake that occasionally befalls my family name
by calling it “Nakamura” which would mean 'middle village'.  Actually,
it is “Nakayama” which means 'middle mountain'.   I sometimes tell
people that my name has “four aces” to ease the spelling, etc. 
 
I was a theological student at ATC, the Anglican Theological
College of B.C. (that was associated with Union College of the United
Church of Canada), and these institutions became the Vancouver School
of Theology.  When ATC still existed when I was in Vancouver from 1950
to 1965, I was associated with the Good Sheperd Chinese Anglican
Mission in Chinatown (I think it was on Keefer Street).  I went there
for “field work”, and later  was involved in the re-establishing of the
Japanese Anglican work as the people returned from the East when we
were allowed back into the so-called “protected area”. 
 
While at Good Shepherd, I received the kindly care of the Rev.
Andrew Lam, and his wife Leatrice, and the parishioners of the Chinese
Mission.  The people took the Japanese ideographs of my name, and read
them in Cantonese, and they remembered and called me, “Chung Saan Jun”
(my phonetic rendition of what I remember hearing rhem say) – of
'middle mountain truth' (Nakayama Makoto). 

The Japanese reading of the
ideographs in “on” reading is “Chu San Shin” or Chuzan Shin”, and in
“kun” reading – which is the poly-syllabic original rendition, it comes
out as “Naka/yama/Makoto”.  Well, the Chinese members associated
“middle mountain” and 'truth” with Sun Yat Sen!  Perhaps you can
decipher the connection of meanings and such an association!  Anyway,
with these associations it was considerably easier to remember my name
in that fashion, than with Na/ka/ya/ma/Ma/ko/to  so many meaningless,
cumbersome syllables, but “Chung Saan Jun” was much easier!

 
Best wishes and kindest regards,
 
Tim

The Rev. Timothy M. Nakayama, Priest, retired
Diocese of Olympia + The Episcopal Church USA
1991-2000 Missionary, Okinawa & Aomori, Japan
1966-1991 Rector, St. Peter's, Seattle
1956-1966 Diocese of Calgary, Canada

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello Tim,



I am sorry for the misspelling,
somehow Nakamura got stuck in my brain, not to be confused with a
childhood friend named Nakashima, nor the girl I had a crush on in
Grade 7, then after I moved away after Grade 8, we met after Grade 12,
and finally had a real date – her name was Fujiwara.



I will correct on the website, and
with your permission I will put your reply letter onto the website as I
think it is very interesting.



Diocese of Olympia eh? Former
Governor Gary Locke is a distant relative. His cousin Paul Locke in
Seattle married my Grandmother's cousin Carol. Ever since I was a baby,
we would visit Auntie Carol and Uncle Paul in Seattle once a year. I
don't see them as often anymore, but we do keep in touch.



Now that I have your e-mail, I can
send you the photos as files. I will send them to Roy Miki too. I have
a lot of respect for Roy, and think he does wonderful work.



Peace & Blessings, Todd

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi Todd,
 
Thanks for your message.  In my initial message I made an error! 
The time I was in Vancouver was from 1950 to 1956 (not until 1965 –
juxtaposition of two numbers!) 
 
You have my permission if what I wrote might be 'interesting'.  I
think it is more interesting that you mention our former Governor, Gary
Locke as your relative!  and you mentioned it because I cited the name
of our diocese.  Our “Diocese of Olympia” of the Episcopal Church, USA,
betrays the fact that it was established before Seattle was much of a
place.  The diocese celebrated it's 150th anniversary last year.   The
local church headquarters has been in Seattle, years before I ever came
here.  Olympia was more significant in the early days.
 
Likewise, the 'Diocese of New Westminster' of the Anglican Church
of Canada was begun before Vancouver was very important, and the
Cathedral was located in New Westminster at the beginning.  Christ
Church Cathedral, at Georgia and Burrard, and the diocesan office is 
in downtown Vancouver.
 

I have known about Roy Miki for many years, and I met him, I
believe, in 1995, at my Dad's funeral.  But on May 24th it was our
first face to face conversation.  Also, so near and so far —I hadn't
seen my sister, Joy, for the last 10 years!  We had been in Japan for
almost 10 years, and came back to Seattle 5 years ago.  But her
peripatetic life, and my laid back state, now in retirement, our paths
have sometimes been close, but they didn't cross – until Wednesday
night and OBOV !

 
Delighted to note your signing off with “Peace & Blessings”. 
As it happens I also very often write that before I close with my name!
 
Tim.

ExplorWORD May 28th, at Our Town Cafe – featuring Joy Kogawa

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l-r Rev. Tim Nakayama, Prof. Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa, ACWW vp Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa was the featured author at ExplorWORD at Our Town cafe, for May 28th.
I MCed the event which featured writers Michelle Wong, Jessica Gin-Jade, Alexis Keinlein and Mishtu Bannerjee.

It was organized by Jim Wong-Chu for the explorASIAN festival, and co-sponsored by Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop and RicePaper Magazine.
Sid Tan of Saltwater City TV, was there to film the evening, which will be broadcast next week hopefully on Shaw Cable.

It was a wonderful reading that featured the insightful writings of
young up and coming writers, and closed with the wise reflections of a
well-respected and honoured literary force. Joy Kogawa used her time to
talk about the recent protests by Chinese descendents in regards to the
selective historial perspective of the Japanese government ommiting WW2
atrocities against China.

Joy told the story of peaceful small island situated between China and
Japan where when China visited, they claimed ownership, and when Japan
visited they claimed ownership. And how the island played host to one
of WW2's bloodiest land battles where the peaceful inhabitants were
almost wiped out. It was the story of Okinawa. On the 50th anniversary
of the Battle of Okinawa, the natives named each of the citizens who
had died, and included the names of Japanese and American soldiers…
honouring every human being that died, in an act of tremendous grace
and forgiveness.
Joy revealed that her ex-husband David Kogawa came from Okinawa, and so
their children are descendents of Okinawan heritage.

Joy closed her time with a reading of a poem “Oh Canada”, from her
novel Obasan. It is a beautiful poem acknowledging the bittersweet
qualities that make up the roots of Canada – both in its physical
environment and the qualities of its people. It's context is that it is
set during the time of internment of Japanese Canadians during WW2.

After Joy's reading, I shared with the Our Town audience, my
conversation with Richard Hopkins, following Joy's reading at the
Vancouver Public Library's One Book One Vancouver
event featuring Joy on May 24th. I had told Richard that Joy inspires
us all to be better Canadians. Richard had corrected me and said that
Joy inspires us all to be better human beings.
In closing, I encouraged everybody to attend the One Book One Vancouver
readings throughout the summer that would be built around the novel
Obasan, and that would continue right to Word On The Street in
September.

I encouraged people to support the drive to save the Kogawa homestead
in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, that had been taken from the
Kogawa family during WW2. I recounted that at the VPL reading, I had
asked Joy to name some of her favorite Asian Canadian writers, she had
said “We all love Wayson Choy.”

“But tonight, and for this summer,” I said, “We all love Joy Kogawa.”
pictures of this event by Jim Wong-Chu to follow…. stay tuned….

Joy Kogawa's novel Obasan is the book for all of Vancouver to read

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Joy Kogawa sharing her happiness with the audience that her novel “Obasan” at the premiere event for One Book One Vancouver – photo Todd Wong

A very HAPPY Joy Kogawa shared her pleasure with the audience at the opening event for One Book One Vancouver
at VPL's Central Branch on Tuesday, May 24th.  Obasan is the
novel written about a young girl's journey through the Japanese
Canadian internment camps of WW2, when the Canadian government branded
all Canadians of Japanese descent as aliens, in its misguided efforts
to ensure homeland security.

The title, Obasan, actually means “aunt” in Japanese, and it is to her
aunt that the young character Naomi looks up to.  Obasan is
considered one of the most important Canadin books of the last 30
years, according to Prof. Roy Miki, who along with Kogawa and his
brother Art, worked to secure redress for Japanese Canadians from the
Canadian government.

“I am very happy today,” said Kogawa, as she tried to describe what it
meant to her to have Obasan chosen as the book all Vancouverites should
read.  Kogawa described her conversation earlier in the day with
her friend fellow author Alice Munro who had recieved the Terasen Life
Time Achievment award as part of the VPL Central Library's 10th
Anniverasay celebrations.  “It just keeps getting better and
better, she told me – the recognition and awards.  I guess I will
have to accept it,” Kogawa smiled.


Kogawa said that when she first heard about the Redress settlement from
the Canadian government, she was very happy.  “But it was over so
quickly – the moment passed.  I'm going to savour this one.” 
Throughout the summer, VPL will hold many events based on the themes of
Obasan.  One Book One Vancouver is described as a book club for
the entire city.  The closing event will be at Word On the Street
Festival September 25th.

Kogawa answered many questions after her all too brief talk.  When
I asked her which Asian Canadian writers that she liked personally she
said, “Oh, there are so many now.  When Roy and I started there
weren't very many…. of course we all love Wayson Choy.” she said.

When asked what was happening with the Kogawa homestead
in Vancouver's Marpole neighborhood, Joy replied: “When we rediscovered
it was still there, Tim and I tried to buy it but we didn't have enough
money, so I let the idea go.  When Roy Miki organized the reading
at the house, it was very special.  I was very excited to see the
cheerry tree again.”  Then Joy held up a little plastic bag and
said “
Seeds from the cherry tree,” as she smiled broadly.

Joy speaks very clearly, patiently and perceptively.  She shares
with the audience that Obasan was also just chosen for the One Book
program in Medicine Hat.  She answers questions about what it was
like living in internment camps, as she describes that some readers
have felt that the condtions were so inconcievable that it must have
been fiction.  Joy counted the members of her family, plus her
father's friends that all lived in a chicken coop filled with fleas and
chicken smell. 

“12 of us… after she names each person.”

At the end of the evening many people thank Joy for such an inspiring
talk.  She shared her buddhist philosophy of “letting go” when
asked about dealing with the pain and suffering.  She shared her
perception of American Christians creating a Christian bomb that landed
on the most important Christian Cathedral in Japan. 

“Joy Kogawa teaches us to be better Canadians,” I shared with Richard
Hopkins, professor at the University of BC Library School. 
Richard smiled and said succintly, “Joy Kogawa teaches us to be better
human beings.”

The next Joy Kogawa events are:
Thursday night at the Vancouver Museum for a sampling of the songs from
Vancouver Opera's forthcoming production of Naomi's Road, based on Joy
Kogawa's children's book.

Saturday night at Our Town Cafe for a sampling of Asian Canadian
writers featuring Kogawa, Alexis Keinlein and Gleen Deer. organized by Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop.


Joy Kogawa signing books
with Janice Douglas (VPL Director of Community Programs) and Paul
Whitney (VPL City Librarian) – photo Todd Wong

Joy Kogawa signs a book for VPL Board Member Chrissy George – photo Todd Wong

Relaxing after the reading: Rev. Tim Nakamura (Joy's brother), Prof. Roy Miki, Joy Kogawa, and Todd Wong – photo by David Kogawa

Joy Kogawa readings for May 24th and May 28th in Vancouver

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Joy Kogawa at VPL May 24th

for One Book, One Vancouver premiere event

Here are details from the Vancouver Public Library website about the One Book One Vancouver program featuring Joy Kogawa.

Joy will also do a reading for Asian Canadian Writer's Workshop
May 28 7:00 pm

explorWORD – Reading Series

Our Town Café 96 Kingsway, Vancouver

Featuring Mishtu Banerjee, Joy Kogawa, Hanako Masutani, Alexis Kienlen, Glenn Deer

Obasan is a powerful and moving story of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, told through the
eyes of a child, Naomi. Surrounded by hardship and pain, Naomi is protected by the resolute endurance of her aunt,
Obasan, and the silence of those around her. Only after Naomi grows up does she return to question that haunting silence.

Until
September, Vancouver Public Library is presenting a variety of special
events, author readings, and discussions to bring the book alive and to
explore its many ideas. Please see our One Book Upcoming Events page for details.

 

 

 

 

 

Premiere Author Reading with

Joy Kogawa

Tuesday, May 24

7:30 p.m.

Central Library (350 W. Georgia St.)

Alice MacKay Room (Lower Level)

(part of our special Library Square at 10 celebration!)