Joy Nozomi Kogawa, born, 1935, Vancouver, British Columbia, faced discrimination during World War II when she and her parents and thousands of other Japanese Canadians were removed from their coastal area homes and forced into supervised isolation in the interior of British Columbia and elsewhere in Canada. Prior to the publication of her novel, Obasan, 1981, which covers her experience as a Japanese Canadian who lost her civil rights as the result of harsh government policy, Joy Kogawa was better known as a poet. Instrumental in influencing the Canadian government to make settlement, in 1988, with Japanese Canadians for their loss of liberty and property during World War II, Joy Kogawa has been the recipient of many awards, including the Canadian Authors’ Association Book of the Year Award, 1982. A Member of the Order of Canada, this distinguished poet, novelist, and writer has received several Honorary Doctoral degrees including one, in 1999, from Knox College, University of Toronto, as shown in this photograph. [Photo, courtesy Joy Kogawa]