Stone Voices
Wartime Writings of Japanese Canadian Issei
- Publisher
- Vehicule Press
- Initial publish date
- Jan 1998
- Category
- General
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781550650143
- Publish Date
- Jan 1998
- List Price
- $16.95
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Where to buy it
Description
With the bombing of Pearl Harbour in December 1941, all persons of Japanese descent were declared 'enemy aliens.' Their assets were seized and most of the Japanese Canadian population was relocated or sent to internment camps. Stone Voices is a selection of memoirs, diaries, and letters written by four Issei, the first generation of Japanese to settle in Canada. "I devoured these stories in one hungry afternoon of reading...as I read, I ranged through discomfort, old sadness, nostalgia, admiration, tenderness, pride, and anger as I was taken back to look again with the help of these additional perspectives, into the secrets and intimacies of my childhood." - Joy Kogawa
About the authors
Keibo Oiwa is a cultural anthropologist, author, environmentalist, and public speaker. He lived in North America for fifteen years and holds a ph.D. in Anthropology from Cornel University. The founder of the Sloth Club, Japan`s leading "Slow Life" environmental group, he is in frequent demand for lecture and consultation throughout in Japan.
Joy Kogawa, one of North America’s most celebrated writers, is the award-winning author of three novels, seven collections of poetry and two books for children. Obasan, which the New York Times called “a tour de force…brilliantly poetic in its sensibility,” continues to be taught across North America, and the opera based on her children’s book Naomi’s Road has toured in Canada and the United States. Kogawa has worked to educate Canadians about the history of Japanese Canadians and is a long-time activist in the areas of peace and reconciliation. In 2010, the Japanese government honoured her with the Order of the Rising Sun. Her latest book is Gently to Nagasaki.
Editorial Reviews
"I devoured these stories in one hungry afternoon of reading...as I read, I ranged through discomfort, old sadness, nostalgia, admiration, tenderness, pride, and anger as I was taken back to look again with the help of these additional perspectives, into the secrets and intimacies of my childhood." -Joy Kogawa
