Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

When the Emperor Was Divine is a novel written by Julie Otsuka. The story was set in the period of World War II when Japanese-Americans were put into internment camps as they were believed to be a threat to the United States because of their possible connections with the country of Japan. The novel follows a Japanese family and their whole journey throughout this period. The story was told in the third person for the majority of the novel and often interrupted by several flashbacks. The novel is divided into five chapters with each section explained by the viewpoint of a family member. The first chapter, “Evacuation Order No. 19,” was told from the viewpoint of a woman, which would later be characterized in the chapter as the mother of the family, and the beginning of their journey. She packed everything in their house and locked it all up after she saw a sign in the post office. She took care of all the animals that she knows in different ways including the murder of an innocent dog named White Dog. She told her children, who …show more content…
In the beginning of the chapter, the boy is somewhat confused as he thinks every man in the camp looks like his father. They were all assigned in the same room and spend most of their time waiting for the day to come to an end. They could work as farmers in Autumn, but previous workers would say they like the camp better. In this camp, they were viewed as equal towards other people in the camp, as their previous employment doesn’t matter. During one of the flashbacks in the chapter, the boy recalled the day his father was arrested and how he had to practically change his identity. The woman’s and the girl’s characters began to change is a negative way as the chapter goes on. Several seasons have passed and they were still in the