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Obasan and Itsuka

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Obasan and Itsuka
The world is filled with different kinds of hatred caused by different reasons. For instance, people may hate others because of their gender, or for having different beliefs. Perhaps people hate others based on their cultural representation instead of who they really are as an individual, whether that representation is a religion or a race. This single fact of racial discrimination has caused many terrible and tragic events in history such as the holocaust, slavery, and among them is the evacuation and relocation of Japanese Canadians during World War II. In the novels ¡®Obasan¡¯ and ¡®Itsuka¡¯ by Joy Kogawa, the main protagonist Naomi and her family go through the mistreatment and racial discrimination, which occurred to all Japanese Canadians during World War II. Obasan, which focuses on the past, and Itsuka, which focuses on the present, are novels that are similarly based around Naomi¡¯s experiences during the war. These painful experiences leave Naomi with tormenting memories, which she will never forget or fully recover from. However, Naomi¡¯s strong beliefs help her to eventually overcome the immense hardships. Finally, Naomi¡¯s past is becomes the very soil that allowed fruition of her future. Both novels Obasan and Itsuka are similar in a way that it is focused on protagonist Naomi¡¯s experiences during the relocation, with her strong faith allows her to overcome the hardship and realize her past has constructed her future.
The painful experience that Naomi lives through leaves her with terrible memories. In the novel Obasan, the main character Naomi, a young female Japanese Canadian, faces racial discrimination in her childhood during World War II. Naomi and other Japanese Canadians consider themselves to be ordinary Canadians until the attacks on Pearl Harbor. All Japanese Canadians who were most like had nothing to do with the attack find themselves classified as dangerous aliens. This incident leads to the separation of Naomi and her mother, which in

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