Set in rustic Canada during the years of WWII, Obasan is a look into the life of Noami Nakane, a Japanese Canadian, torn between her background and the ever-scrutinizing eyes of society. Through the eyes of Marilyn Russell Rose, Obasan, the "only fictional account of the historical experience of the Japanese Canadians, attempts to enact historical experience, and to bring the interment to life through imagined characters and invented story."

Obasan was the first book to expose the horrors and suffering of the the Japanese Canadians. Published in 1981, the book has brought forth several national issues, and may have influenced Prime Minister Nulroney's guarentee for reformation towards Japanese Canadians in 1984.

Kogawa explains a detailed account of this trauma in Obasan; to begin with, they were forced to sacrifice many possesions including property and housing due to lack of trust. They were shipped on trains, splitting their families apart to extremely small housing where they were forced to live. Eventually they were shipped again to even worse housing on beet farms, where they would labor, harvesting sugar beets.

They were outcasted for a large portion of their lives, not only during the time they were physically transported, but for many years after when they had noones trust. These voids in thier lives created wounds that could be healed, but scars that would always remain.

Kogawa creates an intense mental picture of the cruelty and anguish these completly innocent people were put through, simply due to their heritage. You certainly can sympathize, and almost begin to feel what they must have gone through. Kogawa depicts the story of the Nakanes well, and provides a well deserved look at a "historical forgotten".