When the Emperor Was Divine

WHEN THE EMPEROR WAS DIVINE: Julie Otsuka: Anchor Books: 2002: 144 pages.

The story of a Japanese-American family, known only as Mother, Girl and Boy and their experience in a Utah internment camp. The father was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy prior to this and had been sent to a similar camp in New Mexico.

The story begins when the mother sees notices posted around Berkeley, CA instructing Japanese residents that they must evacuate. The next three years are spent in shoddy lodgings in the Utah desert with highs over 100 in the summer and below freezing in the winter. The family returns to their home in Berkeley after the war and must assume their old lives, but nothing is the same for them. They must deal with the trauma from their experiences and hostility from their neighbors.

This book really drives home the injustice of the Japanese-American experience during World War II. They did not see themselves as Japanese any more and indeed had nothing to go back to in Japan. The children didn’t even know how to speak Japanese. The author has created a quick but thorough look at this moment in history.

AJ