Joy Nozomi Kogawa, a poet and novelist, was born in Vancouver in 1935. She spent her early childhood in Vancouver. When she was 6 years old, she and her parents were among the thousands of Japanese Canadians forcibly removed from the coastal areas and interned during WWII. They were moved first to Slocan, in the interior of BC, and later to Coaldale, Alberta, where they worked as farm labourers. Kogawa studied Education at the University of Alberta and Music at the University of Toronto. Joy Kogawa is celebrated for both her moving fictionalized accounts of the internment of Japanese Canadians, and her work in the Redress Movement to obtain compensation and reparation for her community.
Joy Kogawa is a Member of the Order of Canada and of the Order of British Columbia. She has received honourary doctorates from many Canadian universities and was the recipient of a National Award from the National Association of Japanese Canadians. Her family's original Vancouver home was purchased by the Land Conservancy of British Columbia, and saved from imminent demolition, in 2006.