Characters Discussed

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Naomi Nakane

Naomi Nakane, the protagonist and the narrator of the prose sections. At the age of thirty-six, she is an unmarried elementary teacher in Cecil, Alberta, and is bored with her dead-end life. She is a quiet, subservient, and evasive adult whose victim-oriented personality has been shaped by childhood abuse of both a sexual and a political nature.

Ayako

Ayako, “Obasan” of the title, is a timid and victimized “everywoman” who endures abuse and believes that the best way to live is to hide unpleasantness and simply endure. The words “silence” and “stone” describe both her and her husband, in whose household Naomi and Stephen grow up.

Isamu

Isamu, the husband of Ayako and uncle of Naomi. Scion of a shipbuilding and shipowning family, he is exiled from Vancouver inland to the prairie during the relocation, which hits him particularly hard. The “stone bread” he bakes symbolizes the hardships that Japanese Canadians endure. His funeral is the narrative frame for the story.

Emily Kato

Emily Kato, Naomi’s unmarried aunt who lives in Toronto. She is an angry and vocal political activist who spends the novel trying to convince Naomi to become more aggressive in defending her heritage and in making her abuses public. She has saved a box of correspondence, newspaper clippings, and political documents that tell an important part of the story.

Nesan

Nesan (“Little Sister”), Naomi’s mother. Naomi has good memories of her. Nesan and her mother (Naomi’s Grandmother Kato) leave Naomi and Stephen, when the children are very young, to tend to Nesan’s ailing grandmother in Japan and do not return to Canada. Their fate is a mystery that is resolved gradually during the course of the story. Emily has written letters to Nesan in Japan, keeping copies for herself.

Mark Nakane

Mark Nakane, Naomi’s father. An accomplished singer and musician, he contracts tuberculosis and does not survive the war. His gradual loss of voice foreshadows his inability to protect his family as well as predicting his own death. Against all odds, he strives to nurture Stephen’s musical talent. He is shown as most happy when he is making music.

Stephen Nakane

Stephen Nakane, Naomi’s resentful older brother, who is so talented at the piano that he develops a national reputation as a Western classical musician and tours frequently around Europe. In essence, he has “sold out,” denouncing his Japanese heritage by criticizing both Obasan and Naomi for not talking “properly,” by preferring Western fast food to Japanese dishes, and by taking up for a time with a French divorcée. At the time of Uncle Isamu’s funeral, he has been away from his family for eight years.

The Reverend Nakayama

The Reverend Nakayama, a spiritual leader who moves with Naomi’s family during their relocation experiences. His gentle leadership, and Christianity in general, is a strength and comfort to the family that cannot be overestimated. It is through his telling that Naomi and Stephen finally learn the truth about their mother.

Characters

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Obasan revolves around the recollections and experiences of Naomi Nakane, a schoolteacher residing in the small Canadian town of Cecil, Alberta. The narrative begins in 1972 when Naomi and her Uncle Isamu visit the coulee, a shallow grassland ravine they frequent "once every year around this time." Although Naomi seems unaware of the significance until the novel's conclusion, her uncle returns to this "virgin land" of the prairie annually to commemorate the anniversary of the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Naomi merely remembers that "the first time Uncle and I came here...

(This entire section contains 1568 words.)

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was in 1954, in August, two months after Aunt Emily's initial visit to Granton." It is only at the book's end that Naomi (and the reader) discovers the news Emily brought during that visit—this includes Grandma Kato's letters detailing the suffering endured by Naomi's mother and grandmother after the Nagasaki bombing.

A month after visiting the coulee, Naomi learns of her uncle's passing. Upon returning to Granton to support her aunt, Naomi attempts to communicate with Obasan, striving to understand the silent "language of her grief" and to break through a silence that "has grown large and powerful" over the years.

Naomi's uncle's death, with whom she lived as a child, prompts her to visit and care for her widowed Aunt Obasan. This character, inspired by Kogawa's own aunt, forms the quiet core of the narrative. Obasan embodies an attitude rather than just a person, symbolizing the power of silence. In the novel, Obasan, the daughter of a schoolteacher and a well-educated music teacher herself, immigrated to Canada where she met Grandma Nakane. They quickly became close friends, and she eventually married Uncle Isamu. Obasan upholds the tradition of remaining quiet and accepting life's challenges without protest. She adheres to this belief through the deaths of her babies, her in-laws' suffering in Nagasaki, the government's confiscation of fishing boats, their relocation to internment camps, and the death of her husband. According to Obasan, who often says little more than "O," one must accept injustice. Her character also pays homage to women and mothers worldwide:

Squatting here with the putty knife in her hand, she is every old woman in every hamlet in the world.... Everywhere the old woman stands as the true and rightful owner of the earth. She is the bearer of keys to unknown doorways and to a network of astonishing tunnels. She is the possessor of life's infinite personal details.

For Naomi, Obasan becomes a mother figure in the absence of her own mother. Despite this, there remains "an ominous sense of cold and absence." Obasan does her best, and Naomi finds solace in her softness and constancy,

Naomi's brief stay with Obasan becomes an opportunity for her to revisit and reconstruct her traumatic childhood experiences during and after World War II. Naomi’s narration intertwines two timelines: one from the past and one from the present, blending experiences with memories, and history with personal recollections. Her struggle to reconcile the confusion and suffering from both eras forms the heart of the novel’s plot.

During her visit, Naomi sifts through documents, newspaper clippings, letters, and diaries kept by her Aunt Emily, a vocal political activist dedicated to exposing the truth about the Japanese-Canadian experience of persecution. Among these items are letters from Naomi's Grandma Kato, the most traditional family member who never fully left Japan. During one of her frequent trips back to Japan, the war broke out, leaving her and Naomi's mother stranded. Unable to bear her daughter's suffering, Grandma Kato details their horrific experiences in letters to their family remaining in Canada.

These experiences, recounted in Obasan largely through Naomi's childhood memories, are rooted in the real history of 20,000 Japanese Canadians (and 120,000 Japanese Americans). Viewed as a dangerous enemy during World War II, many of these individuals were stripped of their homes and possessions, forcibly relocated to ghost towns or concentration camps, subjected to harsh living and working conditions, and generally denied the rights of citizenship. Throughout Obasan, Naomi’s quest to understand her painful childhood story intersects with this broader communal history of suffering.

Influenced by her two aunts—one suffering in silence, the other a "word warrior"—Naomi feels compelled to revisit her childhood, filled with mystery, confusion, and pain. Her recollections come in fragmented phrases, scenes, stories, dreams, and fairy tales. A photograph of herself as a child with her mother, given to her by Obasan, triggers memories of her childhood home in Vancouver and the idyllic life it held before her family was torn apart and evacuated from the West Coast. Naomi recalls steaming-hot baths with Grandma Kato, evenings in the family’s music room, and bedtime stories told "night after night."

As Naomi’s childhood stories unfold, the sources of her confusion and pain become clear. Repeated incidents of sexual abuse by a neighbor, Old Man Gower, instill feelings of shame and confusion in young Naomi, creating a rift between her and her mother for the first time. When her mother leaves for a trip to Japan, Naomi feels "an ominous sense of cold and absence," unsure if her own actions caused her mother to "disappear." Additionally, Naomi is troubled by the increasing racial tension that threatens her family with evacuation and internment, a "riddle" that made them "both the enemy and not the enemy."

When the evacuation begins and Naomi's father and uncle are ordered to report to work camps, Naomi, her brother Stephen, and Obasan board a train from Vancouver to the mountainous interior of British Columbia. In the ghost town of Slocan, Naomi and her surrogate family, along with many other relocated Japanese Canadians, attempt to rebuild family and community life. Despite facing tremendous challenges, they manage to succeed, at least partially. Over time, Slocan becomes vibrant with new small businesses, social connections, worship services, and schools. Naomi enjoys "Sunday-school outings, Christmas concerts, sports days, [and] hikes" with her new friends. However, life in Slocan is not without its suffering and confusion for Naomi. After being saved from drowning by Rough Lock Bill, Naomi dreams in the hospital of all the brutality and death she has witnessed since leaving Vancouver. Her vivid dream leads her to realize that "Death comes to the world in many unexpected places," even in the revived community of Slocan.

After several years in Slocan, Naomi and Stephen are thrilled by the end of the war and the unexpected arrival of their father. But their hopes for a reunited family and a return to their former life are short-lived. Their father is once again sent to a work camp, where he later dies before reuniting with his children. Meanwhile, Uncle, Obasan, Stephen, and Naomi are "relocated" to a sugar-beet farm in the harsh climate of the Canadian plains. On the Barker farm outside of Granton, Alberta, they struggle to survive under conditions far worse than those in Slocan, without the comforting sense of community that Slocan had provided. Eventually, Uncle and Obasan manage to leave the Barker farm and move to a house in Granton, where they stay after Stephen pursues a music career and Naomi becomes a teacher.

It is to this home in Granton that Naomi returns after her uncle's death to care for Obasan. It is also in Obasan's home, more than twenty-seven years after the bombing of Nagasaki, that Naomi finally learns the truth about her mother's suffering and the reasons for her silence. Naomi and Stephen had been shielded from this knowledge by their mother, who asked that the truth be kept secret "for the sake of the children" ("Kodomo no tame"). Even as an adult, Naomi is protected from the truth by Uncle (at the coulee), by Obasan (who gives her pictures instead of answers), and by Aunt Emily:

"What do you think happened to Mother and Grandma in Japan?" I asked. "Do you think they starved?"

Aunt Emily's reaction was so quick and subtle it almost went unnoticed. Yet, I sensed that deep within her eyes, a shutter had briefly opened and closed at the mention of Mother and Grandma. My unexpected question seemed like a sudden jolt of pain that needed to be immediately suppressed.

She gazed into the darkness. Sometimes when I stand in the prairie night, the vast emptiness draws me in, like a speck of dust into a vacuum cleaner. I can almost imagine myself vanishing into space like a rocket, with my questions trailing behind.

Finally, when the remnants of her family gather to mourn her uncle's death, Naomi finds answers to the questions that have haunted her all her life. At Naomi's urging, Nakayama-sensei reads the letters sent years ago by Grandma Kato, letters Naomi had seen but could not understand. These letters recount horrific experiences and unbearable memories, explaining the enduring silence, the "voicelessness," that has plagued Naomi since her mother left her as a child. While the revelations about her mother's fate offer no easy reconciliation with the past or the forces that caused it, Naomi finally realizes that her mother's silence was an act of protection and love, not abandonment or punishment. At the conclusion of Obasan, Naomi returns to the coulee she visited yearly with her uncle. She now understands the significance of his ritual and can embrace the past with peace, set aside "this body of grief," and recognize that "the song of mourning is not a lifelong song."

Character Analysis

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Aya-obasan
See Ayako Nakane

Mr. Barker
When the family is permitted to leave the camp at Slocan but is still denied entry to Vancouver, they relocate to Granton and work in the sugar beet fields for Mr. Barker. He embodies the typical Canadian from the interior. The entire family—Isamu, Obasan, Stephen, and Naomi—labors in the sugar beet fields. Their efforts, along with similar work from other Japanese Canadians across the heartland, earn them the respect of local farmers due to a record-breaking harvest. Mr. Barker makes an appearance toward the end of the novel to pay his respects to Obasan, but the encounter is very awkward, and his wife is extremely condescending.

Rough Lock Bill
Although his role is brief, Rough Lock Bill is a crucial character. He starkly contrasts with another male symbol of Canada, Mr. Gower. Rough Lock views people as individuals rather than through the lens of race. He also knows some of the land's stories, highlighting a connection between the struggles of Japanese Canadians and Native Americans. Emphasizing that goodness still exists in a panicked Canada, Rough Lock saves Naomi from drowning while Kenji flees in fear.

Old Man Gower
Mr. Gower, the neighbor of the house in Vancouver, uses various pretenses of scraped knees and treats to lure Naomi close enough to be sexually molested. He is the one asked to watch the house when the family must leave, though all the adults understand they will likely never return. Naomi's experience with Mr. Gower haunts her in Slocan, as she imagines his prying eyes and groping hands in the forest. Through Mr. Gower's horror, the wilderness of the Canadian interior is depicted as masculine. This is a unique approach by Kogawa, as traditionally, male protagonists conquer a female universe. Here, Naomi ultimately masters the Canadian wilds when she embraces the earth at the coulee.

Dr. Kato
When Grandma would travel back to Japan, Grandpa would take care of Emily. This explains why Emily is less traditional. Grandma's first trip occurred while he was still in medical school. As a doctor, he had certain privileges that his family could utilize when internment began. Therefore, Emily could go to Toronto instead of the camp at Slocan. Emily was unable to take the Nakanes with her.

Aunt Emily Kato
Guided by the Old Testament principle, “Write the vision and make it plain,” Aunt Emily Kato is a passionate political activist. She entrusts all her documents and fervor to Naomi, hoping she will join her in the fight for justice. Naomi once describes Aunt Emily as “one of the world's white blood cells, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot.” Ironically, it is not Aunt Emily who narrates the story, but rather the daughter of the quiet Obasan. Nonetheless, Aunt Emily is the one who provides all the documentation. She supplies the headlines, executive orders, and countless letters. Aunt Emily is the character who attempts to understand the government's actions during World War II by collecting the facts. However, these facts offer little solace to Naomi. Aunt Emily contrasts sharply with Obasan, as she refuses to remain silent and demands justice. Yet, she kept quiet about the death of Naomi's mother, a silence Grandmother Kato could not maintain.

Grandma Kato
The most traditional member of the family, Grandma Kato never fully left Japan. She frequently returned, and when Mother was old enough, she accompanied her. As a result, Mother embodied the qualities of both Grandmas—yasashi. During one of these trips, World War II erupted, leaving them stranded in Japan. Despite her traditional ways, Grandma Kato could not endure her daughter's suffering. Therefore, she wrote to the family in Canada, detailing her daughter's horrific fate.

Grandpa Kato
See Dr. Kato

Kenji
Kenji is a childhood friend of Naomi's who shares stories about the King bird that cuts off the tongues of liars. One summer day, he takes Naomi to the lake and persuades her to join him on a raft, promising to be careful. However, he accidentally swims beyond the drop-off point, and in fear of what he has done, he abandons Naomi, leaving her stranded in the middle of the lake.

Mark
See Mr. Tadashi Nakane

Mother
See Mrs. Kato Nakane

Ayako Nakane
The title character of the book is inspired by Kogawa's aunt. She serves as the silent heart of the narrative—more an embodiment of an attitude than an individual—and represents the strength found in silence. In the novel, Obasan is the daughter of a schoolteacher and a well-educated music teacher herself. She immigrated to Canada, where she met Grandma Nakane. They quickly became close friends, and she married Grandma Nakane's son, Uncle Isamu. Obasan believes in the tradition of remaining quiet and accepting life's challenges without protest. She maintains this belief through the deaths of her babies, her in-laws' suffering in Nagasaki, the government's confiscation of fishing boats, their removal to internment camps, and her husband's death. According to Obasan, who rarely says more than “O,” one must accept injustice. Her character also pays tribute to women and mothers worldwide:

Squatting with a putty knife in her hand, she embodies every elderly woman from every village around the globe. Everywhere, the old woman stands as the rightful guardian of the earth. She holds keys to mysterious doorways and an intricate network of astonishing tunnels. She is the keeper of life's countless personal details.

For Naomi, she becomes a maternal figure after her real mother is gone. Even so, there is always “an ominous sense of cold and absence.” Obasan does her best, and Naomi finds solace in her tenderness and steadfastness.

Grandma Nakane
Grandma Nakane was yasashi, meaning gentle and quiet. This suggests she was very traditional and, as a result, highly skilled in nonverbal communication. She was the first to die in the camps, more from a lack of understanding why she was there than from the harsh conditions.

Grandpa Nakane
The first of Naomi's ancestors to arrive in Canada was a master boatbuilder who quickly gained fame. Many fishermen visited his shop on Saltspring Island. He married a cousin's widowed wife, who brought him a son and then bore him Naomi's father. The two sons built a beautiful boat, which the Royal Canadian Military Police confiscated in 1941. Grandpa Nakane did not survive the internment camp.

Uncle Isamu Nakane
Born in Japan in 1889, Isamu followed his father's footsteps as a boatbuilder on Lulu Island. After the government seized the fishing fleet, the Nakanes sought refuge near the Katos. Due to his brother's education, the government sent him to a work camp, leaving Isamu to act as a stepfather to his children—Stephen and Naomi.

For eighteen years, Naomi and Uncle Isamu made pilgrimages to a specific coulee near their home in Granton. Not until the end of the story does she understand that Uncle was trying to reveal her mother's fate. This place then becomes Naomi's memorial to her family and the lost community of Vancouver.

Mrs. Kato Nakane
Mother, like her own mother Grandma Kato, is yasashi—gentle and traditional. She is the absent presence in the novel. The harrowing details of her struggle to protect the children in her care at Nagasaki are heart-wrenching, but she wishes to keep them from her own children. This desire leads to nearly thirty years of mystery for Naomi.

Megumi Naomi Nakane
The novel's narrator, thirty-six-year-old schoolteacher Naomi Nakane, is summoned from her teaching by the Principal to receive the news of her uncle's death. She returns to her aunt's house to be with her and to reminisce. Her narrative moves back and forth in time, covering her experiences of sexual abuse, losing her mother, internment, and working in the beet fields. When the family gathers for the funeral, Naomi and her brother Stephen finally learn the story of their mother's death.

In recounting the story, the adult narrator acknowledges her complicity in Old Man Gower's abuse and her mother's departure. As a young child, Naomi readily accepts Obasan as a surrogate mother. Naomi is also haunted by the King Bird, which bites off the lying tongue, making her more cautious in her speech. Naomi believes her secret with Mr. Gower caused her mother to leave and stay away. She prefers the past to remain buried and is disturbed by Aunt Emily's insistence on revealing everything and uncovering the truth.

Young Naomi was exceedingly quiet, to the point where her relatives often thought she was mute. She did, however, ask questions, particularly about her mother, but stopped when she never received answers. Similarly, during the chaos of being interned in the Slocan camp, she lost her doll but only inquired about it once, knowing it was gone. This anxiety about speaking is a recurring theme for Naomi and even affects the adult Naomi, who is troubled by her students' questions about her. Yet, in her narration, her voice remains steady. Unlike Aunt Emily, who openly speaks out against the injustices faced by their people, Naomi neither shouts nor remains silent, which in a Euro-centric culture would be seen as passive acceptance. Instead, her writing, filled with references to her childhood and various juvenile tales, provides a calm, steady documentation of historical wrongs. This results in a declaration of cultural enrichment. She is Canadian, ready or not.

Nomi Nakane
See Megumi Naomi Nakane

Stephen Nakane
Naomi's elder brother, Stephen, is a musical prodigy. He has many advantages over Naomi, including his ability to use music as a form of expression. Thus, he possesses two voices, while Naomi struggles with her own. Being older, Stephen had more time to know their mother and better understands their circumstances. Consequently, he copes better with her departure and rejects Obasan as a substitute. Through music, he forms a strong bond with their father, and Naomi listens as they play together.

Stephen harbors resentment towards his family and Japanese Canadians in general. During his upbringing, this is reflected in his sullen demeanor and symbolized by his broken leg. This resentment also fuels his rejection of Obasan, which represents his rejection of his cultural heritage. His negative attitude surfaces initially when he is beaten up before the internment. Stephen feels frustrated because he identifies as Canadian, enjoys European music, and has no connection to World War II. Despite this, he is sent to the internment camp in Slocan, where he limps around in his cast, repeatedly playing records on the gramophone. Eventually, although he attends the funeral, Stephen minimizes his presence and only briefly introduces his fiancée before leaving without staying for the meal.

Mr. Tadashi Nakane
Stephen's father was trained as a boatbuilder but also pursued music. For some reason, he is singled out for internment, while his brother Isamu later joins him in Slocan. His marriage to Stephen's mother is notable as it is the first non-arranged marriage in their community. Tragically, he dies of tuberculosis in the internment hospital after enduring life in a work camp.

Nakayama Sensei
Based on the author's father, Nakayama Sensei is an Anglican minister who converted from Buddhism to Christianity. He serves as the spiritual leader of the Japanese Canadian community and is always ready to assist those in need. He officiates at Grandma Nakane's funeral, incorporating Buddhist rites as per Grandpa Nakane's wishes. At the book's conclusion, Nakayama Sensei translates a letter from Grandma Kato to her husband after the war, unveiling the tragic fate of Naomi's mother and explaining why the children were kept in the dark.

Nesan
See Mrs. Kato Nakane

Nomura-obasan
Nomura-obasan stays with the family in Slocan for a period. She is an old family friend from Vancouver and is affectionately called "obasan" or aunt. Frail and suffering from tuberculosis, her condition causes an incident at the baths and leads to Naomi being forbidden from playing with Reiko.

Obasan
See Ayako Nakane

Reiko
Reiko is another playmate Naomi meets in Slocan. However, their friendship ends when Reiko's mother learns of the illness in Naomi's household. Reiko's reaction illustrates how intolerance spreads as she is taught that illness is a source of shame, whereas Naomi learns to see it as an unfortunate circumstance.

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