Itsuka

By Joy Kogawa

Categories: Fiction
Imprint: Caitlin Press
Paperback : 9781987915853, 192 pages, January 2019

In this best-selling follow up to Obasan, Joy Kogawa charts the profound journey to seek redress for Japanese Canadian citizens following their betrayal by Canada in the 1940s.

Description

"Kogawa is a beautiful and elegant writer.'' —The Kingston Whig-Standard

''What is for you the breath of life?'' Someday — itsuka — Naomi Nakane will answer this question. In Obasan, Naomi's childhood was torn apart by Canada's betrayal of Japanese Canadian citizens during the 1940s. Now, years later, Naomi's scars have left her fragile and uncertain. Quietly teaching school on the prairies, she watches as her family slips away from her. When Naomi's Aunt Emily brings her to Toronto and, almost unwillingly, encourages her to become involved in the Japanese Canadian fight for redress, Naomi embarks on an emotional and political journey that takes her deep into her own soul, and deep into the soul of Canada. Politically charged and intimately poetic, Itsuka tells a story of profound hope, extraordinary commitment and the fragile progress of love.

Reviews

"A poetic novel filled with dreams, images and emotions... Itsuka is both idealistic and realistic, a superb realization of a journey out of fear made by individuals in the process of forging community.''

Ottawa Citizen