When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, Essay Example

The novel opens with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942. There is a woman reading a sign posted on the post office window which is not precisely clear. “The message of the message is very profound on the woman though and has a huge impact on unforeseen events in her life which will be revealed later in the novel.” The sign actually stated “Evacuation Order 19.” The sign just appeared overnight by chance. (“When the Emperor was Divine, 1). The lady takes her two children and travels to the desert plains of Utah by way of train and is later imprisoned in an internment camp for their own safety. The novel depicts a plight of Japanese American people to find their civil liberties and freedoms during World War II in America.

The goal of the author was to help people to realize that civil liberties can be taken away at anytime without prejudice, storytelling can aid people to understand historical texts and cultural identity and to give light to experiences of the Japanese American characters that experiences real situations during the World War II situations. All of this information gave rise to how civil liberties should be defended, what does the experience of war do to people’s identities and moral values, how do people adapt to the change that war creates and how does the particular writer use writing techniques to invoke emotions to readers so that they can feel the true creation of emotions that people of the society felt at the time of the war?

“Over 110,000 Japanese Americans were stripped of their civil liberties and freedoms and forced into concentration camps for nearly four years.” (Ali, Monica 2006). In Chapter 1 of the book, the unnamed mother sees the sign in the post office window writes a few things down on the back of a bank receipt then retreats home and packs her clothes and the clothing of her two children and leaves home on a train. The children pretend to be of Chinese decent rather than Japanese decent in attempt to survive. They change their diet in their lunch pails. They no longer eat rice balls as the Japanese are infamous for eating. The family is constantly attempting to be normal and afraid that they will be cited for their Japanese decent. The husband and father is absent throughout the novel as he was arrested in his slippers and through an internment order and brought to the concentration camps. When he returns nearly four years later he is like a stranger to the household. He is very distant, stays in the home most of the time and expresses a burst of anger which is contrary to the rest of the book and contrary to his character.

What is ironic about the book is we never learn the name of the 40 year old mother and ten year old son and seven year old daughter throughout the book. The names are not needed to portray the tragedy of the events that occur. “After the mother reads the sign in the post office she over the next several days she locks some of the family’s valuables in a back room and buries others in the garden; still other valuables—silk kimonos, records of Japanese opera, a flag of the rising sun—she burns [p. 75].” (Otsuka, J). The cat is given away and the crippled elderly dog is quietly put to rest and buried in the garden before the children arrive home from school. The mother carefully plans their escape journey knowing it will be a long and lasting journey. There are many tests of strengths for the family throughout the book especially tests for the mother whether she can withstand the ordeals without losing her strength. There is wonder whether the boy will lose his waning to dream and whether the daughter will lose her gift for snappy banter? The novel does not depict particularly anyone falling in or out of love nor does it depict much death. There is much tension and violence and many moments of beauty.

The author was inspired to write the novel through her own family experiences. Her grandfather was arrested just the day after Pearl Harbor and shipped to various enemy camps. Her mother and father were interned in Utah for nearly three years. The stigma attached to the war would rather be forgotten by most Japanese families and brought discerned shames on many families. Many involved attempted to rationalize staying quiet by saying the devastation was nothing compared to what the Jews suffered with the Holocaust. A reoccurring question that was raised about this era was, “What did it mean to be loyal?” By this reasoning who exactly was privileged to have such civil liberties? “After the attack on Pearl Harbor hostility reigned ramped in the airs and became laws of the land escalating to paranoia.” (Otsuka, J.)

Each of the six chapters of the book describes a particular segment of the family’s life. The family was under orders of the United States government to immediately evacuate their home. Another chapter describes the mother and her children’s journey on the train to the internment camp. A third chapter describes the daily life at the camp and the final chapter describes the family’s return home to Berkley, California after the end of World War II. This included the father’s return home from the camps of Texas. The book gives reference to the convolutions of how the Germans and other cultures did not look different than the Japanese during this time.

Japanese Camps During World War II

Japanese were ordered through mandate of the government after the attack of Pearl Harbor because the American government feared the takeover by the Japanese. Camps were set up in Idaho, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, Colorado and Arkansas. The camps consisted of overcrowding and very poor living conditions. The author reflects the overcrowding and poor living conditions in Chapter 3 of the book and further considers and emphasizes that the people living in these camps were Japanese American citizens who were only feared because of the color of their skin and the place they were born. Hirabayashi v United States (1943) distinguished that civil rights could not be violated during these times where a student passed his curfew and was sent to the camp. He later contested the violation after finishing his doctorate degree and the conviction was overturned. He further argued his 5^th amendment rights were violated based on his inherited ancestry. Under Executive Order 9066 the camps were closed in 1946.

Germans, Italians and other Europeans were also forced to relocate there for nearly four years.

According to the novel the U.S. government has made formal reparations to the government of those nations for infringements of the citizens’ rights.

Further it was shown that most of the imprisoned were children and there was no risk of them spying for the Japanese government or of being unloads to the government. The government had no means to justify their continued capture. Only ten of those captured were found to be spies and they were all of Caucasian nationality rather than Japanese nationality.

Living in the internment camps were like living in a barrack and sharing common essentials. “In December 1944 Public Proclamation number 21, which became effective in January 1945, allowed internees to return to their homes.” (“World War II Internment Camps”)

The return home was welcomed but was a shocked transition for the entire family especially the father. He had been separated from his entire family for nearly four years at an internment camp in Texas. The mother was still very strong but the children had lost their innocence especially the boy had lost his dreams and motivations. There was a breakdown and total failure of political leadership which was exhibited in the camps and unfortunately took its toll on the youngsters. The Japanese Redress Bill stated there was a grave injustice done to the civilians motivated by racial prejudice and wartime hysteria. This eventually led to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Congress was mandated to pay each person in the camp a sum of $20,000. In the 1980’s the President mandated a written apologies to all survivors for the injustice bestowed upon them during the period following the Pearl Harbor attack. “Despite the redress many still continue to suffer emotional effects of these camps.” (Weglyn, M. 1999).

The father of the children and wife of the mother was gravely affected by his four year stay in the camps of Texas. It is thought that his distance from his family along with the conditions of the camp is what drove him to isolation and a change in his personality. He did not want to socialize with anyone after his return home and stayed inside most of his foremost life after his return home. This is common amongst those captured against their will in concentration camps or those forced to stay in camps whether violence is present or not. There were some reports of minor violence. The actual condition of simply being apart from a free society and being singled out as a predatory culture was in itself damaging to the entire family.

The majority of the Japanese Americans returned to the Pacific Coast area after they were released from the camps. They had little to nothing to return home with hence they had to start over in hopes to rebuild their homes and their lives from scratch as explained in the last chapter of the novel. They had experienced extensive human suffering and sabotage to their civil rights which continued. They continued to experience difficulty finding jobs and being able to obtain loans to start small businesses to support their families. Some were killed and others were wounded with long lasting disabilities. Many attempted lawsuits to regain what they had lost.

Works Cited

When the Emperor Was Divine Retrieved January 27, 2010 from, http://www.howardcc.edu/about_hcc/book_connection/resources/EmperorStudyGuide.pdf

Ali, Monica (2006) Book Choice: When the Emperor was Divine Retrieved January 27, 2010 from, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3652908/Book-choice-When-the-Emperor-Was-Divine.html

Otsuka, J. When the Emperor was Divine Retrieved January 27, 2010 from, http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/teachers_guides/9780385721813.pdf

World War II Internment Camps Retrieved January 28, 2010 from, http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/japan_internment_camps.htm

Weglyn, Michi 1999 The Children of the Camps Project Retrieved January 28, 2010 from, http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/history/index.html