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Aunt Emily Kato
Uncle is Naomi’s paternal uncle, the husband of Obasan, and the half-brother of Father. His death is the catalyst for the novel’s driving action, as Naomi’s grief prompts her to reflect on her life. As a young man, Uncle follows in the footsteps of his father Grandpa Nakane and becomes a boatbuilder. He loves the sea, and he is quietly devastated when the government seizes the boats of Japanese Canadians and forces them to leave the coast. He always says that “someday” he will return to the sea, but he never makes it back, which speaks to the small, personal ways that the government’s racist policies ruin people’s lives. Uncle’s nickname, “Uncle Sam,” also calls to mind the figure of Uncle Sam, a popular personification of the American government, which historically imprisoned its Japanese citizens just as Canada did. This nickname emphasizes that despite being born in Japan, Uncle is still a Canadian, and he holds as much of a connection to North America as he does to Asia. Uncle loves Canada, and he considers it the best place in the world, which highlights further the injustice of Canada’s designation of Japanese Canadians as “enemy aliens.”
Uncle (Isamu “Sam” Nakane) Quotes in Obasan
The Obasan quotes below are all either spoken by Uncle (Isamu “Sam” Nakane) or refer to Uncle (Isamu “Sam” Nakane). For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3 Quotes
Such an old woman she is. She opens her mouth to say more, but there is no further sound from her dry lips.
The language of her grief is silence. She has learned it well, its idioms, its nuances. Over the years, silence within her small body has grown large and powerful.
What will she do now? I wonder.
What choices does she have?
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When Naomi visits Obasan following Uncle’s death, Obasan has little to say to her. Naomi recognizes Obasan’s grief regardless since she is well versed in her aunt’s silences. Naomi describes silence like it is a language in and of itself––one with its own “idioms” that one must learn. This hints that silence, like any language, can be translated and understood if one puts in the effort. Obasan’s silence is more complex than simple emotional repression. The silence is something alive that grows in her body and becomes “powerful,” and Naomi seems uncertain whether that silence grants Obasan power or has Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus t
Chapter 4 Quotes
“What a beauty,” the RCMP officer said in 1941 when he saw it. He shouted as he sliced back through the wake, “What a beauty! What a beauty!”
That was the last Uncle saw of the boat. And shortly thereafter, Uncle too was taken away, wearing shirt, jacker, and dungarees. He had no provisions, nor did he have any idea where the gunboats were herding him and the other Japanese fishermen in the impounded fishing fleet.
The memories were drowned in a whirlpool of protective silence. Everywhere I could hear the adults whispering, “Kodomo no tame. For the sake of the children…” Calmness was maintained.
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As part of the Canadian government’s campaign against Japanese Canadians, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, also known as Mounties) confiscate the boats of Japanese fishermen. This robs the men of their livelihoods, and it also devastates Uncle, who built his boat as a labor of love with his brother. The Mountie who drives the boat away recognizes the skill that went into crafting it, and his smug delight at the “beauty” of the boat highlights the disregard that these supposed officers of the peace hold for Japanese Canadians. Naomi draws a parallel between the confiscation of the boats and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque
Chapter 7 Quotes
Out loud I said, “Why not leave the dead to bury the dead?”
“Dead?” she asked. “I’m not dead. You’re not dead. Who’s dead?”
“But you can’t fight the whole country,” I said.
“We are the country.”
Obasan was not taking part in the conversation. When pressed, finally she said that she was grateful for life. “Arigati. Gratitude only.”
[…] “In the world, there is no better place,” [Uncle] said.
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Emily, Naomi, and Obasan and Uncle represent three different generations of Japanese Canadians. Obasan and Uncle are Issei (first generation), Emily is Nisei (second generation), and Naomi is Sansei (third generation). As such, they hold different beliefs about Canada and their place in it. Obasan and Uncle are immigrants, unlike the other two women, so they do not take their right to live in Canada for granted. They insist upon gratitude toward the nation, even though the government mistreated and imprisoned them for years. Emily, on the other hand, is a Canadian citizen, and she believes she is entitled to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus
Chapter 29 Quotes
Is it so bad?
Yes.
Do I really mind?
Yes, I mind. I mind everything. Even the flies. […] It’s the chicken coop “house” we live in that I mind. […] It’s the bedbugs and my having to sleep on the table to escape the nightly attack, and the welts all over our bodies. […] Or it’s standing in the beet field under the maddening sun […].
[…] I mind the harvesttime and the hands and the wrists bound in rags to keep the wrists from breaking open. […] I cannot tell about this time, Aunt Emily. The body will not tell.
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Recalling her family’s experience on the beet farm brings Naomi’s anger to a boiling point. She has spent years repressing the trauma of the period of internment, but reliving the abominable conditions of life on the beet farm prompts an explosion of feeling that translates to several pages in which Naomi describes how miserable she was on the farm. However, she concludes by expressing that she “cannot tell about this time.” Even her extensive descriptions do not do justice to the pain she felt during those years because words can’t articulate what “the body will not tell.” This tension between Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Co
I can remember since Aunt Emily insists that I must and release the floodgates one by one. […] I can cry for Obasan, who has turned to stone.
But what then? Uncle does not rise up and return to his boats. Dead bones do not take on flesh.
What is done, Aunt Emily, is done, is it not? And no doubt it will all happen again, over and over with different faces and names, variations on the same theme.
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As Naomi confronts some of her most traumatic memories, she once again questions why Aunt Emily has pushed her to remember. Naomi recognizes that this journey into memory has enabled her to access emotions that others cannot. Obasan’s commitment to guarding her emotions has “turned [her] to stone,” rendering her incapable of accessing the feelings she has locked away. The language of “crying for Obasan” takes on a double meaning. On one hand, Naomi is crying because of Obasan, out of sorrow for all her aunt has suffered and for Obasan’s inability to confront it. At the same time, Naomi Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum vo
Chapter 34 Quotes
The comments are so incessant and always so well-intentioned. “How long have you been in this country? Do you like our country? […] Have you ever been back to Japan?”
Back?
[…] Where do any of us come from in this cold country? Oh, Canada, whether it is admitted or not, we come from you we come from you. […] We come from our untold tales that wait for their telling. We come from Canada, this land that is like every land, filled with the wise, the fearful, the compassionate, the corrupt.
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After Uncle’s death, Mr. Barker (the owner of the beet farm where the Nakanes once worked) comes to pay his condolences with his second wife, Vivian. His conversation with Naomi and Obasan is full of “well-intentioned” racist comments. His good intentions do not negate his racism or make it more palatable; the racism of everyday white Canadians like Mr. Barker is simply a more insidious form of the same oppression that Japanese Canadians faced during World War II. The government was able to classify Japanese Canadians as “enemy aliens” because white Canadians already viewed Japanese Canadians as a foreign other. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque place
Chapter 39 Quotes
Obasan is small as a child and has not learned to weep.
Back and forth, back and forth, her hands move on her knees.
She looks at me unsteadily, then hands me the ID card with Uncle’s young face. What ghostly whisperings I feel in the air as I hold the card. “Kodomo no tame—for the sake of the children––gaman shi masho––let us endure.” The voices pour down like rain but in the middle of the downpour I still feel thirst. Somewhere between speech and hearing is a transmutation of sound.
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Naomi has spent the novel “learn[ing] to weep” for all she and her family have lost, but Obasan never opened herself up emotionally in this way. For decades, Obasan has kept herself stoic and silent “for the sake of the children.” This mindset is not unique to Obasan: it is shared by all Naomi’s elders, whom she hears as “ghostly whisperings” as she faces a tangible reminder of how the adults in her life suffered. Looking at this evidence alters the silence that Naomi has grown up within, but she still can’t hear the truth. Instead, she finds herself “somewhere Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque
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Uncle (Isamu “Sam” Nakane) Character Timeline in Obasan
The timeline below shows where the character Uncle (Isamu “Sam” Nakane) appears in Obasan. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
In August 1972, Naomi and her uncle walk along a ravine near Granton, Alberta, where their family moved in 1951. Naomi recalls...
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Chapter 2
...her aunt Emily Kato. Naomi wonders if Aunt Emily has been in love, or if Uncle is in love with his wife Obasan. The lesson is interrupted by a phone call...
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Chapter 3
Naomi visits Obasan and finds her in the kitchen. She asks her aunt if Uncle suffered, but Obasan simply replies that everybody dies someday. Obasan pours Naomi some tea, and...
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Obasan explains that she didn’t know Uncle was dying when she brought him to the hospital, and because the nurses sent her...
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Chapter 4
...master boatbuilder and sailor, and he brought his widowed cousin (Grandma Nakane) and her son Isamu to America with him. Isamu became Naomi’s “Uncle Sam,” who also worked as a boatbuilder....
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Naomi remembers another photograph of Uncle and her Father as young men with a boat they built. They labored over the...
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Chapter 5
...Japanese word for “lost” also means “dead.” Obasan finds an old ID card that lists Uncle’s name and a number, and she stares at it for a long time before putting...
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Chapter 6
...Naomi, speaking in an ancient language about a “mythical contract” between herself and the man. Uncle appears in the forest, performing a ritual dance of the dead with a red rose...
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Naomi wakes slowly, blurring the transition from dreaming to waking. Disoriented, she remembers that Uncle died yesterday, though it feels as if much more time has passed. She goes to...
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Chapter 7
...flashback, Aunt Emily and Naomi sort through Emily’s conference papers at the kitchen table at Uncle and Obasan’s house. These papers include a letter from government official “B. Good” rejecting Emily’s...
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...asks why they can’t just let the past stay in the past, and Obasan and Uncle insist that they must be grateful for their lives in Canada, the best place in...
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Chapter 13
...her grandparents since they went to visit Saltspring Island. She realizes that she hasn’t seen Uncle for a long time, either. Father tells Emily that his time is up and he...
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Chapter 14
...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,...
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...law. Father is taken to a camp, and Emily receives a censored letter from Sam (Uncle) reporting that he is also imprisoned.
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Chapter 16
In 1962, Aunt Emily brings Uncle, Obasan, and Naomi to visit the ghost towns, which were populated and abandoned first by...
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Chapter 19
One day that winter, the family learns both that Uncle will be joining them and that the cast on Stephen’s leg can be removed. Obasan...
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Chapter 20
...have no school to attend. Some children attend classes taught in Japanese, but Obasan and Uncle worry that the mounted police officers will interpret this as an act of disloyalty against...
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Chapter 21
...log raft and goes paddling in the shallow water. Naomi wants to join him, but Uncle has told her she must not go on rafts. Rough Lock Bill comes upon them...
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Chapter 23
...on the floor. Naomi runs home and asks what tuberculosis is. Stephen ignores her, while Uncle replies simply that some people unfairly view illness as shameful.
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Chapter 25
Almost immediately after Father’s return, the family is split up again. Father and Uncle each receive letters stating that Japanese Canadians will not be permitted to return to their...
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Chapter 28
The story moves back to 1945 as Naomi, Obasan, Uncle, and Stephen arrive in the city of Lethbridge, Alberta. Lethbridge is colorless, and the air...
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Chapter 29
...that she “minds” each indignity and moment of pain. After a few years of this, Uncle stops talking about going home.
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Chapter 33
...she prepares. He prefers Aunt Emily, who, he tells Naomi, is not like Obasan and Uncle. Emily also comes to visit that summer, which is the first time Naomi has seen...
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...departs, Naomi wakes in the middle of the night and hears a hushed conversation between Uncle and Emily. She peeks into the room and sees Obasan is there as well, praying...
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Chapter 39
...nor Obasan sleep that night. Obasan sits awake beside Naomi looking at family photos and Uncle’s ID. Naomi wonders if “it was enough” that her family had a few years of...
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