When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka – A Quiet, Devastating Novel About Japanese American Internment
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka – A Quiet, Devastating Novel About Japanese American Internment
By: a.d. elliott | Take the Back Roads - Art and Other Odd Adventures
A Rite of Fancy Book Recommendation and Review
Life as Japanese in the United States: one family's experience.
A short summary:
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka is a spare, haunting novel that follows a Japanese American family forcibly removed from their California home and incarcerated in an internment camp during World War II. Told in a shifting, collective voice, the story traces the quiet dismantling of ordinary life, from the moment of evacuation, through the long train ride inland, to the desolation of life behind barbed wire in the Utah desert. Otsuka focuses not on spectacle, but on absence: the loss of home, dignity, identity, and belonging. The result is a powerful meditation on displacement, fear, and what happens when a nation turns on its own citizens.
My favorite quote:
"And remember, it's easier to bend than to break."
Julie Otsuka, When the Emperor Was Divine
Questions to ponder while reading:
Who in the f-word decided on these camps?
How did we, as a nation of immigrants, justify that type of incarceration?
My review of:
This book is devastating in its restraint. Having seen Delta, Utah myself, the landscape described here feels painfully honest, and that makes the story even more challenging to sit with. When the Emperor Was Divine confronts a chapter of American history that should never be minimized or excused, showing how fear can erode moral judgment with frightening speed. Otsuka doesn’t lecture; she simply bears witness, and that quiet witnessing is what makes the novel so compelling. It left me ashamed that this was ever allowed to happen, and firmly convinced that reacting to fear by stripping people of their humanity is never acceptable, no matter the circumstances.
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a.d. elliott is a wanderer, photographer, and storyteller living in Salem, Virginia.
In addition to her travel writings at www.takethebackroads.com, you can also read her book reviews at www.riteoffancy.com and US military biographies at www.everydaypatriot.com
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