Obaasan’s Boots – A novel study

Pre-reading activities for the class

1. Use maps to identify Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver (Sea Island, New Westminster), the Kootenay region of BC (Nelson, Kaslo, and Sandon), Ontario, and Toronto. Where do you live?
2. Who am I? Write a list of all the ways you identify yourself (student, child, son, daughter, friend, athlete, artist, etc.). What are your interests? What are your strengths? How do you celebrate who you are? What language(s) do you speak? Where do you speak them? With whom? What makes up your identity?
3. Discuss historical fiction with the students. What makes it different from historical non-fiction? What makes it different from fiction? Why do you think the authors chose historical fiction to tell their story?

1. Was there anything that surprised you in this book?
2. Three different characters tell the story in Obaasan’s Boots. Who are they, and how does including three different voices affect your understanding of the story?
3. Have you had an experience like Charlotte and Lou, where you overheard adults talking but did not really understand what they were talking about?
4. Why do the aunts and uncles in the story not talk about the internment?
5. At first, are the girls interested in the stories of the past? Why or why not?
6. Many characters in the book, like Lou and her father, do not get to choose their names. Is there a difference between how Lou and Koki got their names?
7. Why do you think Charlotte asked her grandmother for a Japanese name?
8. Obaasan’s Boots is mostly about women’s and girls’ stories. Is this a perspective you’re used to hearing from when learning about history, the Second World War, or the Japanese Canadian experience? Did anything surprise you about the stories of women at that time?
9. What does mottainai mean? Why is it important for the grandmother? Why is the word important for Charlotte?
10. The grandmother’s boots are a significant image in the story. What do you think the boots represent? Find a description of the boots in the novel to help you think about their meaning.
11. What is the symbolic significance of gardens in the book? Choose a section in the book that refers to or describes a garden and explain the importance of the garden as it appears in that section.
12. Why is water imagery meaningful in the novel? Look at an instance that describes water (oceans, rivers, lakes, etc.) in the book to help you think about the importance of water for the characters in the book.
13. What are some instances of racism you remember from the story that Hisa or her family members experienced in the past? Do Lou and Charlotte experience racism as mixed-race children? Why or why not?

1. Reading reflection journal. Ask students to write down their thoughts about the book as they read it, or you read it together. They might reflect after reading each chapter or by using prompts you provide (feel free to use the discussion questions above).
2. The meaning of our names. Invite students to share the stories behind their names. Ask parents to help students to learn about their names. These stories may be written, presented orally, or used to create posters about their names. Here are some prompts about names: What’s the story of your name? How was your name chosen? What does your name mean? Were you named after someone? Do you have a middle name? What’s a story of your family name? What do you know about the meaning of your name/family name? Stories may include name origins, people with the same name, cultural traditions, intergenerational connections, languages, as well as silly and fun stories about names in the family.*
3. We are unique. Gather resources such as images, art supplies, etc., and ask students to find, draw, or print what makes them unique. Some prompts may include what is their favourite colour, toys, etc.? What do they like to do, celebrate, eat, or watch? Create a large collage of these words, images, and drawings.* (* This activity is borrowed and modified from Emily Chan’s teacher’s guide for Everyone is Welcome.)
4. What would you pack? Ask students to think about what they would pack if they had 24 hours to decide and could only take what they could carry (75 lbs./34 kg) with them. You might want to have students lift things around the classroom so they can feel how heavy 34 kg (75 lbs.) is. Encourage students to consider the things they cannot take with them because those things can’t be packed or there is no time to gather them. Students can write, present orally, or make an artistic representation (a collage, painting, drawing, or photograph) about what they would (or couldn’t) take with them and why. (Additional resource: check out Kayla Isomura’s The Suitcase Project in which participants were photographed with what they could pack in 24 hours.)
5. What did an internment shack look like? Though Hisa and the people in Kaslo did not live in shacks, many Japanese Canadians forced from their homes did, in places like Tashme, New Denver, and Lemon Creek. Show students pictures of shacks built for Japanese Canadians in the camps (see example from Library and Archives Canada) and read Ann Gomer Sunahara’s description: “Built from green wood, there were two types: small shacks, sixteen feet by sixteen feet, divided into a common room and two bedrooms; and large shacks, sixteen feet by twenty-four feet, divided into four bedrooms and a common room. The small shacks were to house a minimum of four people; the large ones, a minimum of eight. Where families had less than the quota of four or eight members, they were expected to share with strangers. The construction was simple and uninsulated: stud walls with one layer of green wood and a single sheet of tar paper for protection from the elements. Additional wood was supplied to the occupants to build beds, tables and benches. Since it was green wood, the furniture quickly warped, and moisture from the bed slats seeped into the mattresses. Apart from that green wood and a small stove, the inmates were to supply everything else themselves.” (The Politics of Racism, 79).
6. Mark space. In a large classroom, library, gym, or schoolyard, have students measure out a space 16 foot by 16 foot (about 4.9 by 4.9 m). Mark it with painters’ tape and, using craft paper or tape, outline where the bedrooms and beds for at least four people (possibly for two different families), the stove for heat, and a table might go. If students have questions about details, like toilets, etc., research the answers together and add the items to the shack outline. You could ask students to reflect on or write about what they think of the space and what it would be like to live in it. Are there challenges or benefits to this living situation? How does it compare to camping or staying in a hotel? Leave the outline on the floor for a few days and ask students to think about how much our daily movements are bigger than, cross over, and go beyond the imagined walls and confines of the shack.
7. Interview an elder in your community or a family member. Together, as a class, make a list of three to five questions students might ask their interviewees about. Students could record the interviews in notes or by audio or video recording (they need to ask for permission first), and they could write them up as magazine-style articles with an introduction or write a reflection about what they learned. Consider open-ended questions such as, “Tell me about a time when …” A book like Moments in Time: Memories of East Vancouver written by Sandip Sodhi may help students brainstorm interview questions, as the book celebrates the themes of everyday life: play, community, food, and connections.
8. Communication and censorship. Ask students to choose a character. Write a letter to another character, and detail events of the time, express feelings, and any other relevant information. Starting on March 16, 1942, all letters written by Japanese Canadians were censored, so they looked like the letter in the book that Hisa imagines she sends to her sister but with many words (like names, Japanese words, locations, etc.) covered over so they can’t be read. Make copies of the students’ letters and ask them to imagine which parts would be blacked out by the government censors. With students, discuss why they think the Canadian government decided to censor letters written by Japanese Canadians? What impact would censoring their communication have had on the members of the Japanese Canadian community? Censorship is becoming a complex topic these days, and you may want to suggest students consider the difference between censoring information in people’s personal letters and in newspapers versus asking people not to use racial slurs (like the one people use about their grandmother that surprises Charlotte and Lou) or other hateful language.
9. Stories of migration. Hisa’s and Koichiro’s parents had different reasons to leave Japan and move to Canada. With students, discuss the push and pull factors of each family’s immigration to Canada. Have students find out their own family’s migration story or stories (whether they moved from another country to Canada or have moved across regions within Canada). Where did their families come from? What were the push and pull factors that led to them living where they do now? Be mindful of your students and their experiences, as this may be a sensitive topic for some. Some students will have experienced traumatic reasons for immigration, while families of Indigenous students have been on these lands since time immemorial.
10. Haiku poetry. The real Chie Kamegaya was a haiku poet, who eventually published her book, entitled An Immigrant’s Haiku Year: Seasons in New Denver (1999). The real Koichiro wrote haiku poetry for most of his life and was a member of the Kaslo Haiku Club and a founding member of the Toronto Haiku Club. Learn about haiku poems and ask students to make their own. They could use a kigo, or seasonal themes, as inspiration. Students can share their poems orally or write them out more decoratively on paper like Koichiro did when he did shodo, or Japanese calligraphy, using a brush and ink. Students can decorate their poems with drawings and images.