GUILFORD — The novel When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka, tells a story about World War II from the perspective of a Japanese family in the midst of racism, confusion, and anxiousness.
Julie Otsuka weaves an intriguing story with characters that are instantly believable, living in a largely unnoted period that was very hard for Japanese people all over the world.
Japanese-Americans were placed in internment camps and exposed to racist propaganda. As one youthful character explained, “We looked at ourselves in the mirror and did not like what we saw: black hair, yellow skin, slanted eyes. The cruel face of the enemy.”
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The book is divided into five chapters, each from a different point of view.
The story starts with the mother of the family receiving an evacuation notice and preparing for a departure to Ohio on a long train ride. Since her husband had been taken away for questioning, he wouldn't be coming with them.
It then moves on to what the daughter was doing and thinking on the train, followed by the perspective of the son in the detention camp in the alkaline-filled sandy desert where trees don't grow. The family was forced to live there for years.
The book then shifts to a third-person point of view on the return trip and follows the slow and cautious reintegration into civilized living among other Japanese also returning and some still slightly racist Americans.
Finally, the story follows the father who was released at the end of the war. Though free, the war severely altered his personality, and he most likely had post traumatic stress disorder. There wasn't a typical “happily ever after.”
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Though a depressing account, When the Emperor Was Divine is written differently from all the other books I have read on World War II. Instead of going over the facts from the war, the story was written as if by a scared child in the midst of all the chaos.
This sort of simple but intriguing writing allows the reader to empathize with the characters in a way that most authors can't deliver. Julie Otsuka's writing style reminded me of diaries that might have been written by victims with lives during wartime.
This novel, albeit short, was powerful and revealing, with great characters that make the reader see the awfulness of war in a unique style of writing that grabs your attention from the very first sentence to the very last word.hh