Saving Face: Poems Selected, 1976-1988

Edward L. Edmonds is a professor of English at the University of Prince
Edward Island.

The number of Canadians grows fewer who can still recall the shockwaves
created by the Japanese entry into World War II in 1941, with all the
accompanying spectral fears of fifth columns and possible invasion on
the West Coast. It was just this that triggered the government’s
policy of enforced internment of all Japanese-Canadians. Miki, himself a
third-generation Japanese-Canadian, tells the story from the victims’
point of view, harsh, traumatic, and uncomprehending as it was to many.

His book falls broadly into two parts. The first part sensitively
portrays “the whole web / of intricate family ties” (his own phrase)
for an uprooted generation. The second part outlines the progress made
by the lobby group Redress, of which Miki was a prominent member,
culminating in a public apology to the Japanese-Canadians by Prime
Minister Brian Mulroney in the House of Commons in September 1988.
Appropriate restitution followed—hence, the title of this book.

Miki rings the changes between prose and verse, each reinforcing the
other. The early poems are naturally backward-looking and reflective,
with snatches of memory, fragments of soliloquy, and ironic commentary.
As heir to two literary cultures and poetic styles, he moves with ease
between both, haikulike at times, skilful in exploiting the etymology of
words to highlight tangential nuances of meaning. Wisely, he provides a
succinct glossary of mainly Japanese terms, thereby enriching one’s
reading of the poems, some of which have already appeared in a number of
journals.