This work is a setting of texts by Japanese-Canadian and Order of Canada recipient Joy Kogawa, whose family was sent to an internment camp by the Canadian government in the 1940s. Despite being born in Canada, the fear of the Japanese was at a critical point in the years of the second world war and Kogawa’s family suffered the reprisal of the nation’s xenophobia and racism.

All motivic material (rhythmic, harmonic and melodic) is derived from deconstructed fragments of the Japanese folksong ‘Sakura.’

Texts are used by permission of the author.