Frances Itani - Requiem

www.cubegallery.ca/artists/norman_takeuchi

Mela Constantinidi, former Director of the Ottawa Art Gallery, wrote the following about Norman Takeuchi’s 2012 exhibition Balancing Act , shown at the Karsh-Masson Gallery in Ottawa:

“Through this artistic investigation Norman Takeuchi is coming to terms with the history that has haunted him. Images from archival photographs relating to the evacuation of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia merge with the underlying anxiety apparent in the earlier works in this series…. These paintings express an intrinsic sadness, but through the integration of these scenes the artist appears to seek closure, putting his conflicting emotions to rest.”

www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/war-conflict/second-world-war/relocation-to-redress-the-internment-of-the-japanese-canadians/topic—relocation-to-redress-the-internment-of-the-japanese-canadians.html

CBC has excellent digital archives; this site includes radio coverage of speeches reflecting the racism of the period during the Second World War.

www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/war-conflict/second-world-war/relocation-to-redress-the-internment-of-the-japanese-canadians/the-long-journey-home.html

This website is more recent, and this short video about a Japanese Canadian family finally returning to a location near their original home in B.C. is particularly moving.

http://www.pc.gc.ca/culture/ppa-ahp/itm1-/page03_e.asp

On Parks Canada’s website, read more about the Nikkei Internment Memorial Centre National Historic Site of Canada in New Denver, B.C., which helps to preserve the history of the internment camps in the B.C. interior.

www.najc.ca

The website for the National Association of Japanese Canadians focuses on human rights and community development.

www.jccc.on.ca/heritage/five_gen/resources.html

The website for the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto recounts the history of Japanese Canadians over one century.

www.japanesecanadianhistory.ca/Foreword.html

Readers will see in the Acknowledgements of Requiem that as part of my research, I read this excellent book by Ann Gomer Sunahara. You can read it online here.

Remembering the Bones

Poached Egg on Toast

Deafening

Leaning, Leaning over Water

Man Without Face

Pack Ice

Truth or Lies

Missing

Listen!

A Season of Mourning

Rentee Bay

No Other Lodgings

Linger by the Sea

COVER DESIGN: ROYCE M. BECKER

COVER PHOTOGRAPH: © JIM ZUCKERMAN / CORBIS

AUTHOR PHOTO: OTTAWA PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION

“Remarkable … Understated … Requiem delicately probes the complex adjustments we make to live with our sorrows…. In this perfectly modulated novel, we see the emotional cost of suppression.”

“Itani writes with a delicate grasp of both the obvious and the unspoken, using ordinary words charged with extraordinary meaning to produce a serious book that nevertheless invites you to keep reading past midnight.”

“In Requiem , Frances Itani is at the height of her powers…. The Japanese-Canadian story has never been told with such passion, insight and telling detail…. Itani has told this story in amazing, cinematic detail…. [ Requiem ] is surely Itani’s greatest novel, although calling Requiem a novel does not do it justice. Requiem is a great work of literature from a determined author at the peak of her powers. It is also a sobering history lesson for all those Canadians who belittle other countries for their racism but are too smug and too blind to examine their own nation’s transgressions.”

“With Requiem , Itani has written an important and moving novel … told with painful and quiet eloquence.”

“Itani is an accomplished stylist; her prose is lyrical yet clear, her pace unhurried…. Itani’s empathy and understanding of human nature enliven her characters… . In this finely written, reflective novel, Bin’s physical journey and mindful recollections lead him to a place where he can choose to either hold onto his anger or make peace with his ghosts.”

“An undeniably respectful and moving homage to a shameful factual episode.”

“Beautifully rendered … Both tribute and a wail of grief … Lyrical and undulating, Requiem rages too.”

“An evocative and cinematic tale … Poignantly, the story’s determined brush strokes speak of quiet perseverance, underscoring the sense of loss, of talent suspended…. With a precise, elegant style Itani avoids the maudlin, and delivers a taut novel.”

“A beautiful, slow, meandering read that explores the past of Japanese Canadians in a particularly resonant way.”

Requiem

Copyright © 2011 by Itani Writes Inc.

P.S. section © 2012 by Itani Writes Inc.

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EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2012 ISBN: 978-1-443-40691-8

A Phyllis Bruce Book, published by Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

First published in Canada by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd in a hardcover edition: 2011

This Harper Perennial trade paperback edition: 2012

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