In Kogawa’s novel, “Obasan”, the identity of the Japanese Canadian is an identity portrayed as a constant struggle between the spaces which lie between being Japanese and with the agony of trying to understand the Canadian contexts within which this family finds itself. This is the line which both separates the Japanese from the White Canadians, and the line which brings the Japanese into a relationship with Canadians, brought together and joined by a line which is not always visible, but which is drawing on the tensions of a shared history.