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"The Canadian internment of Japanese citizens leading up to and during the Second World War. The story follows three main characters as they negotiate this extremely difficult time for Japanese-Canadians."--
Fiction. At the heart of MYSTERIOUS DREAMS OF THE DEAD is the spiritual search for a father who died in a plane crash north of Lake Superior when his son was fifteen. Mike Shintani decides in his early thirties to address the curious circumstances surrounding his father's death; the senior Shintani's body was never found, and wolves circled the crash site as if guarding the area. The impetus for Mike's search for truth is a diary he found in the basement of his home. It was obviously his father's, but it was written in Japanese. Mike never knew his father could write Japanese. He himself could neither read nor write the language. He was fortunate enough to enlist the help of Naoko Ito, a Jap...
This interdisciplinary inquiry examines Asian Canadian political and cultural activism around community building, identity making, racial equity, and social justice. Informed by a postcolonial and postmodern cultural critique, it traces the trajectory of progressive cultural discourse generated by Asian Canadian cultural activists over the course of several generations. Xiaoping Li draws on historical sources and personal testimonies to convincingly demonstrate how culture acts as a means of engagement with the political and social world. He addresses topical issues of "race," ethnicity, identity, and transculturalism.
Inspired by an old Japanese parlour game of the Edo period (1603-1868), The Game of 100 Ghosts is a lyrical tribute to the poet's friends and relations who recently departed their lives. This wonderful collection then evokes the spirits of lost friends and relations while paying tribute to a tradition.
A powerful novel about Japanese gangs and picture brides in pre-World War II North America.
Through the lives of three siblings living in Hiroshima, Japan, Terry Watada explores the sweep of history during the years 1930 to 1945, known in Japan as the Fifteen Year War. The youngest, Chisato Akamatsu, travels to Canada looking for a new life and runs into unexpected brutalities in immigration, a troubled marriage and the humiliation of the internment in her new home during World War Two. Hideki, the only brother, joins the military to fight for the Emperor and find "glory" in China. What he finds is the fallacy of patriotism, the brutality of war, and the futility of existence. Chiemi, the oldest, was in the city when to the atom bomb hit. She then desperately searches for her twin babies. The three encapsulate the hopes, fears, dreams, the inhumanity of the period and resiliency of humans caught in historic events The bomb money, a mass of melted coins found after the bomb blast, stands as a symbol of the fate of the family. In his fourth novel, Canadian poet, dramatist, and novelist Terry Watada delves into the Pacific War, looking at WWII from a Japanese perspective, unique in Canadian literature.
The mask has become emblematic of the 2020 pandemic. It is also an important symbol of Japanese classical culture and tradition, a central motif of Noh Theatre as well as Kabuki. For Terry Watada, the mask not only conceals but reveals hidden truths of the bearer. It is with this mind that he wrote the poems for Masks. With a deep sense of grief, tragic loss and injury, and love and respect for family history, he expresses the isolation of the times, the vagaries of old age, and the mysteries of the mystical. The themes of immigrant realities, racism and elusive identity in Canadian society are embedded in the poems which utilize vivid imagery, minimal or untethered punctuation, and colourful use of language. All come together to express the reality of his life.
Adapted from the novel by Terry Woo
Violent and sometimes fatal acts of racial hatred are drawing increasing attention around the nation. Asian American and Asian Canadian authors discuss the impacts of racial crime, exploring the relationship between the physical or verbal acts to issues of ethnic identity, civil rights of immigrants, Internet racism, sexual violence, language and violence, economic scapegoating, and police brutality. They offer suggestions for combating hate crime with coalition building and community resisatnce, as well as legal prosecution and police training. The compelling narratives are a valuable resource for courses in Asian American studies, race and ethnic studies, sociology, criminology, and for anyone who wants to understand racial violence in North America. Visit our website for sample chapters!
Religious acculturation is typically seen as a one-way process: The dominant religious culture imposes certain behavioral patterns, ethical standards, social values, and organizational and legal requirements onto the immigrant religious tradition. In this view, American society is the active partner in the relationship, while the newly introduced tradition is the passive recipient being changed. Michihiro Ama’s investigation of the early period of Jodo Shinshu in Hawai‘i and the United States sets a new standard for investigating the processes of religious acculturation and a radically new way of thinking about these processes. Most studies of American religious history are conceptually ...