Joy Kogawa's Obasan - Individual vs. Collective Attempts to Overcome Suffering. This paper is about Joy Kogawa's Obasan and individual vs. collective attempts to overcome suffering. Kogawa's novel was published in 1981, a time when the experience of the Japanese in Canada and the United States during World War II was being talked about a good deal. The author was herself interned during the War, like thousands of Canadian Japanese people who lived in coastal areas of the Province of British Columbia. Pages: 6 Bibliography: 1 source(s) listed Filename: 18767 Joy Kogawa Obasan.doc Price: 53.70