On the 60th anniversary of the bombing that claimed Naomi's young mother in Obasan, Joy Kogawa revisits her second novel—Itsuka—now retitled Emily Kato
In Obasan, Naomi's childhood was torn apart by Canada's betrayal of Japanese Canadian citizens during the 1940s. Years later, living quietly as a schoolteacher in the prairies, Naomi suffers the passing of the dear aunt and uncle who raised her, and her wounds are reopened. But Naomi's other aunt—the feisty Emily Kato—convinces her to move to Toronto and encourages her to become involved in the Japanese Canadian fight for redress. Politically charged and intimately poetic, Emily Kato tells the story of one community's struggle for justice, extraordinary commitment, and profound hope.