When An Emperor Was Divine Analysis

Japanese American’s lives changed in an instant due to a different country's actions. In the middle chapters of When an Emperor Was Divine, it showcases the struggles all families went through when realizing where they will be living until the end of the war. Otsuka highlights the hardships the characters go to through inside and outside of the internment camp, reminding us of the struggles Japanese Americans went through during WWII to overcome the public's trepidation. As the girl and her family are on their journey to the internment camp, she is still able to see what's happening on the outside of the train “Three young girls in white dresses whirled by beneath matching white parasols” (26). Their lives are put on hold but, everyone else is continuing their own on the other side of the window. Nobody on the outside cared, they didn't stop their own lives to help Japanese Americans. They left the town with no goodbyes or well wishes, they didn’t know if they were going to return home to their belongings “Now when we ran into these same people on the street they turned away and pretended not to see us” (115). The public was in fear of all of them, and the girl and her family were very aware, even though they had no …show more content…
Our choice of internment camps, put their lives at a halt. Not only did they suffer during the internment camp, once they went home the struggles did not stop “One man's house had been doused with gasoline and set on fire while his family lay sleeping inside. Another man’s shed had been dynamited” (112). Just because they were out of internment camps does not mean that their lives were easy, families were still being ruined by the actions of others. They were now free but, they are living their lives in fear that others will not accept them as citizens