Obasan: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Back in 1972, Naomi reflects on the Pool, a prison in Vancouver where coastal Japanese Canadian families were kept “like animals” before being sent to labor and internment camps. This was the start of wartime efforts to displace all Japanese families from the coast and eventually Vancouver. Naomi’s thoughts are interrupted by a phone call from Aunt Emily, who says that she and Stephen will arrive in the afternoon. Naomi gives Obasan a bath, puts her to bed, then returns to Emily’s journal.

The rest of the chapter comes in the form of Emily’s diary entries, framed as letters to Mother, who in the 1940s is still in Japan with Grandma Kato. In the first entry on December 25, 1941, Emily writes about the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. She writes that Naomi is confused and disoriented at the growing tension around her, while Stephen understands and is starting to internalize the racial prejudice he is exposed to. Emily muses about the way racism functions in a democratic state, referencing both official discriminatory policies as well as events of interpersonal racism.

Further entries over the next few months describe the fear that grips the family and the wider Japanese community as more and more Japanese Canadians are imprisoned. All people of Japanese descent are deemed suspicious; their newspapers are shut down, their radios are confiscated, and they are subject to a curfew. Eventually all Japanese Canadians residing in a designated “protected area” along the coast––including Naomi’s family––are scheduled to be moved to internment and labor camps. Emily writes of the abysmal, dehumanizing conditions she has heard about in the camps, and she continues to try to reconcile her understanding of herself as a citizen of a democratic Canada with the oppression she faces.

In late March of 1942, Emily briefly stops addressing her diary entries to Mother, as she no longer has faith that she will see her sister again, but by April she is once again writing to her sister. Naomi’s Uncle Dan is falsely accused of espionage, and shortly after he is cleared of these charges, the news reports the presence of Japanese naval officers along the coast. Emily is worried by the thought of foreign spies and by the deteriorating trust among Japanese Canadians. The government terms the Nisei “enemy aliens.” Meanwhile, Grandpa Kato, Stephen, and Father are all in poor health.

In April, Emily visits a deeply depressed Grandma Nakane, who is living in squalor in the Pool while Grandpa Nakane is isolated in the Sick Bay. In addition to the unsanitary living conditions, the Mounties who serve as prison guards are racist and violent, and Emily remembers when she used to idolize the Mounties as protectors of the people and upholders of the law. Father is taken to a camp, and Emily receives a censored letter from Sam (Uncle) reporting that he is also imprisoned.

Emily continues to delay the internment of herself, Naomi, and Stephen while she searches for a place to live outside the “protected area.” Moving is complicated, and Emily has to sell most of the family’s possessions, but she finds a place in Slocan, one of the “ghost towns” without modern amenities that other Japanese Canadians have fled to. The government grants her a special permit to move the family from Slocan to Toronto, where a doctor has offered to let them board with him, but the permit includes only the Katos and excludes the Nakanes. Emily decides to agree to these terms in the hopes that she can later negotiate to bring Naomi, Stephen, and the other Nakanes to Toronto with her. This is the last of the diary entries, and after Emily leaves the Nakanes, they don’t see her again for 12 years.