Summary Of When The Emperor Was Divine

Julie Otsuka, author of When the Emperor was Divine, tackles a sensitive topic from American history in her novel. In 1942 the United States of America creates Japanese internment camps for Japanese-Americans. This occurs in light of Pearl Harbor, the bombing by the Japanese on a U.S naval base. All Japanese-Americans are required to relocate to these camps for national security. Otsuka uses the perspectives of a Japanese-Americans to talk about this topic. Each chapter focuses on a different character to show a different point of view and tone. The tone towards Japanese internment camps shifts from apathetic to bitter to frustrated as shown by adjectives, sentence structure, and verbal irony.

The tone created by the omniscient limited narrator is apathetic towards the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. The narrator focuses on the woman and shows apathy towards her situation. When she is first introduced to the idea of relocation through Evacuation Order No.19, “[s]he read[s] the sign from top to bottom...She [writes] down a few words on the back of a bank receipt

The use of adjectives, sentence structure, and verbal irony creates each unique tone. By writing this story from the perspective of a Japanese-American family, each member with his/her own tone towards Japanese internment camps, Otsuka shows a more accurate depiction of how Japanese-Americans reacted to camps. There are people who felt apathy while others felt bitter while others felt frustrated. This novel gives a perspective of the victim, which in it of itself is rare. The fact that the victim in this case is also Japanese adds a race issue to the story that enhances it. The novel shows how victims of discrimination can be also be victims of racism. Racism is discrimination that almost always affects the victim in a negative way, and it needs to be talked