Evacuations

With Evacuations, Kevin Irie weaves a poetic documentary for readers, capturing the personal and political histories of the Japanese-Canadian internment in British Columbia during World War II. The resulting poems oscillate between the lyric mode and techniques of erasure poetry to highlight the dehumanizing nature of public decrees and government notices. Irie deconstructs the Canadian state's racist policies, creating a record of painful memories replete with archival resonances. The collection offers a rich tapestry of historical voices, revealing the devastating effects of the internment and preserving the stories of a generation gradually slipping into silence.
Evacuations weaves a poetic documentary for readers, capturing the personal and political histories of the Japanese-Canadian internment in British Columbia during World War II.
Evacuations weaves a poetic documentary for readers, capturing the personal and political histories of the Japanese-Canadian internment in British Columbia during World War II.
"Evacuations by Kevin Irie doesn't just take my breath away, it breathes into me with the scent of the Rocky mountains-Slocan, Bayfarm, Tashme, Lemon Creek, Sandon. It's the ongoing womb and wound, the inhaling ex-haling of our JapaneseCanadianess." Joy Kogawa, author of Obasan

• On Reading Joy Kogawa

• I. Of the White Man's Well Being

• What I Remember (Hearing) of the Evacuation

• Mottainai

• Of the White Man's Well Being

• Of the Workers at The Great Northern Cannery, West Vancouver

• Flounders

• Low Tide Under The Great Northern Cannery

• The Higher the Boat… (An Alzheimer's Elegy)

• Family Stories: A Powell Street Kitchen

• Sandy Cove Haiku, West Vancouver, 1938

• Victory Bonds for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• TO MALE ENEMY ALIENS

• NOTICE TO ALL PERSONS OF JAPANESE RACIAL ORIGIN

• Pre-War Photos

• Seizure Cento / Voice and Echo

• Chattels for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• Baggage for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• FINAL EVACUATION REGISTRATION

• Of All Persons of Japanese Origin

• Tashme

• Butterbur for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• Coltsfoot for Interned Japanese-Canadians (Yellow Peril)

• Common Burdock for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• Fiddleheads for Interned Japanese-Canadians

• Internment Camp, The Communal Bath House

• The Autograph Book, New Denver, Summer 1943

• Duckface (From an Internment School Photo)

• Of the Japanese-Canadians Who Built the Trans Canada Highway

• A Carving from Solsqua Road Camp, 1942

• On Asking Why Japanese-Canadian Internees Never Tried to Escape

• To All Persons of Japanese Racial Origin Now Resident in British Columbia

• In Late 1946 Popoff Was Dismantled (13 Ways of Looking at an Internment)

• East of the Rockies

• Owned

• II. After

• R.C.M.P. File #10349 (Sonnet for A Grandmother)

• Of the Internees Who Stayed In New Denver, BC

• Post-War Photo: A Funeral in The Rockies

• The Internet Is Our Photo Album

• Donald Trump Has Asian Eyes

• Departing for Pearson Airport

• Post Script: A Japanese-Canadian History Map

• Notes

• Acknowledgments