Last-minute donation helps save Kogawa house

A last-minute donation of $500,000 from an anonymous corporate donor has helped The Land Conservancy of British Columbia buy author Joy Kogawa's formerhouse in Vancouver.

On Wednesday, the land conservancy completed purchase of the modest frame house that was the home of Kogawa, author of theinternationally acclaimed novel Obasan.

The group had raised $230,000from 550 donors around the world, but was still short of funds needed to purchase the house when an anonymous corporate donor offered $500,000.

"The future of the historic Joy Kogawa House is now completely in our hands, and we are proud of what we were able to accomplish with such a short deadline," said TLC deputy executive director Ian Fawcett in a statement.

Another $200,000 will be required to restore the house, which the Kogawa family occupied in the 1930s and '40s before being sent to an internment camp in the B.C. Interior.

Kogawa's books, Obasan and Naomi's Road, tell the story of the internment of Japanese-Canadians during the Second World War.

The house she lived in had been slated for demolition to make way for condominiums.

"When we look at the uncaring in our planet, here is evidence that relationships can be rehabilitated, and the formerly despised can be embraced," Kogawa said after the house was purchased.

The Land Conservancy is working with writers' groups to create a writers-in-residence program, to be run in Kogawa House, for authors who are in exile. An additional $300,000 is needed to create that program.

"The dream that writers who are presently among the despised of the world can come and write their stories here fills me with hope," Kogawa said.