When the Emperor was Divine Most of Julia Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine is written in short, choppy fragments, each conveying a different aspect of life in the camps. This style of writing has a very profound, yet subtle way of showing the reader how the lives of these Japanese-Americans had been shattered, as if in a blender, by the concentration camps. Their lives were filled with confusion and all they had ever known about America was jeopardized. Their freedom was stripped, their property seized, and they were made to seem, as Orwell says, “less equal than others”. This tragic situation is brought to light by the father, who says, “So go ahead and lock me up. Take my children. Take my wife. Freeze my assets. Seize my crops. Search
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When the family had to leave, They could only bring what they carried. Their pets had to be abandoned, their own father was stripped away as if they lived under the very dictatorships America was fighting. “Many people had lived in our house while we were away but we did not know who they were...This man was a lawyer, his name was Milt Parker, he had shown up...and offered our mother his services...But where was he now? And where was our money?”(110). This quote shows the complete leveling effect that the camps had had on the lives of the Japanese-Americans. They were less than citizens and were not only removed from the sacred protections America gives all citizens, but they were targeted and victimized by other Americans as well. When they returned they were given a mere $25 to restart their lives. This dire situation is very powerfully portrayed by Otsuka, especially through the haphazard juxtaposition of anecdotes she uses to illustrate the family’s time in the concentration camps. Otsuka’s goal in writing this way was to convey an experience most readers have never experienced: having your life nullified. The children lost their dog, their bird, and all of their friends. The mother lost all her memories from Japan, her husband, her house, but
When the family had to leave, They could only bring what they carried. Their pets had to be abandoned, their own father was stripped away as if they lived under the very dictatorships America was fighting. “Many people had lived in our house while we were away but we did not know who they were...This man was a lawyer, his name was Milt Parker, he had shown up...and offered our mother his services...But where was he now? And where was our money?”(110). This quote shows the complete leveling effect that the camps had had on the lives of the Japanese-Americans. They were less than citizens and were not only removed from the sacred protections America gives all citizens, but they were targeted and victimized by other Americans as well. When they returned they were given a mere $25 to restart their lives. This dire situation is very powerfully portrayed by Otsuka, especially through the haphazard juxtaposition of anecdotes she uses to illustrate the family’s time in the concentration camps. Otsuka’s goal in writing this way was to convey an experience most readers have never experienced: having your life nullified. The children lost their dog, their bird, and all of their friends. The mother lost all her memories from Japan, her husband, her house, but