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When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

915 Words4 Pages

The Difference Between Me and You Acceptance, equality, and inclusion are all key factors in today's time, but back about 80 years ago equality and things of that sort were not as thought about. To be honest they were quite frowned upon. In the book “When the Emperor was Divine” by Julie Otsuka those points are discussed. The story goes into detail of a families experience with being put in Japanese internment camps. This story discusses many topics: loss of identity, and assimilation. The family was sent to an internment camp while their father was sent to prison. The kids were young and confused, but as they age they start to realize the racism and disinclusion that is around them. Eventually they get to go home but nothing is the same …show more content…

Not only did the camps cause physical pain it also caused mental pain. Sick patients didn't get the help they needed and deserved. Depression and anxiety was not treated correctly as well. Everyone has this pressure to be perfect but yet not to stick out. In the story there is a sense of hope and aspiration toward life going back to normal. When the family is moved to the internment camp, everyone looks the same. They all have the sense of their identity being taken from them. “In the beginning the boy thought he saw his father everywhere.” (Otsuka 49) This adds to the fact of everyone looking the same and having very few differentiating identity features. Japanese people tend to have very similar facial features, but no person is the same. Being in these camps took away what makes each person unique; themselves. After the family got released from the internment camps they felt sort of empty. Like part of themselves had been taken. When the father returned from prison “He never talked about politics, or his arrest, or how he had lost all of teeth.”(Otsuka 133) The father tried to forget about all that had happened to him but it was hard for him to forget when his whole identity was stripped away from him. Another thing about that quote is that teeth are used by detectives to find the identity of bodies, so there's another hint to them losing their identity. This story really gives a real life perspective on how racism and the japanese internment camps during world war two affected people of japanese

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