When the Emperor Was DivineJulie Otsuka

By: Michaela Bukaty, Cigi Danda, Maura Eveld, & Erin Welsh

A Japanese-American family received a notice to evacuate their home in Berkeley, California, forcing them to relocate. Taken first to Tanforan Race Track, the family lived in a dingy horse stall. Several months later, they were sent on a train to Topaz, Utah where they lived in dusty, uncomfortable barracks. Earlier in the year, the father was arrested under suspicion of being involved in the Pearl Harbor bombing; during their separation, the two children exchanged letters with the father. The mother and children finally returned home after three years and five months, only to find their house in poor condition. Although the war had ended, they were still treated as outcasts. Eventually, the father returned home but no longer resembled his old self. Relations with neighbors improve; however,they are never fully accepted.

Summary

Before Topaz, Utah: motherlygo-with-the-flow

Character Descriptions Maura EveldMrs. WilcoxEnlish II Honors30 August 2010

The Woman:During Topaz, Utah:

senselessdreamer

Back at home:

relieved The woman is of Japanese descent. She narrated the first chapter of the story when they are still living in

Berkely, California in the spring of 1942. Her family included two children, one daughter and one

son, and her husband who was arrested the previous December due to suspicion from the Pearl Harbor bombings. From the evacuation notice to the train ride from Tanforan, the woman seemed confident and orderly. She was described almost without emotion as she ran errands and packed before they were sent away. Her generous attitude was shown when she, "placed an old wooden suitcase beneath the window and sat down on the lid so the girl and the boy could have the seats to themselves. 'Lie down,' she said to them. 'Try and sleep.'" (page 43) This proves that she truly wanted the best for her children, especially in the tough times. Once

in Topaz, Utah, however, the woman started to drift away. She was continually without an appetite, and at one point was so upset she hung a curtain and stayed behind it, sleeping and dreaming. She missed the sea. This left the children to take care of themselves - and the woman. Once finally home in Berkely, the woman used her beloved house key to enter the home, and although it was trashed, it was still home. She did what she could to make their lives "back to normal."

Character Descriptions, cont.Maura EveldMrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010The Girl:

stubborn naïve rebellious changing

The girl, the daughter of the woman, is of Japanese descent. When the family was still in Berkeley, she asked the mother, "Tell me how I look." (page 15) She wondered what was wrong with her face because people at school were staring at her. This shows how much she does not yet understand. Ironically, her favorite song on the radio was "Don't Fence Me In" (page 13). The girl narrated the train ride to Topaz, Utah. It was here that she releases her stubborn, unfavorable side. She talked back to her mother, never wrote back to her father, and lied to Ted Ishimoto, another passenger on the train. Once in Topaz, Utah, the girl started growing up, but arguably not for the better. She began staying out late at night and smoking with her friends; she was drifting away, too. Despite this, she still talked with her brother and saved her money to buy him a Coca Cola. When they return to Berkeley, the girl was anxious to become more "American." She and her brother announced, "We would never be mistaken for the enemy again!" (page 114)

Character Descriptions, cont.Maura EveldMrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010

The Boy:

curious watchful thinker son The boy, the son of the woman, is of Japanese descent. Among the whole family, the boy seems the most attached to and proud of his heritage. Before the family was sent away, a man asked him if he was Chinese or Japanese. Knowing that revealing his Japanese ethnicity could put his family in harm, "the boy answered 'Chink,' and ran away as fast as he could. Only when he got to the corner did he turn around and shout, 'Jap! Jap! I'm a Jap!'" (page 76) In another instance, the boy whispered the Emperor's name as he passed the guard tower (page 52). This shows that even though he doesn't want to get punished, it feels wrong to him to lie about his heritage. He knew that he shouldn't have to lie. Also, the boy seems the most attached to his father. He was absolutely devastated at his arrest, mostly because of how he was taken away: in a robe and slippers. He hated how weak that made his father look, and was disturbed that almost every other father was wearing something more official. The boy wrote him letters, too (unlike the girl). Lastly, the boy was curious. He narrated the chapter in Topaz, Utah. He wondered about the places to which he was headed, about the horses they passed, and about the the things his family was doing and had done.

Character Descriptions, cont. Maura EveldMrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010

I (the father, the husband): During his time away:

stronglonging

Before his time away:fun-loving

Back at home:scarredlifeless

The man, the father of the boy and the girl and the husband of the woman, is of Japanese descent. Before he was arrested, the father sang songs, drew pictures, made stilts, and put on shadow plays for his children. However, his time away must have scarred him, for " he did not draw for us, or sing songs for us in his wobbly, off-key voice. He did not read us stories." (page132) The children continued to mention his different attitude: he would wander about the house, he was suspicious of everyone, and he never went back to work. The last chapter was narrated by him. His thoughts conclude the story and set off a thought-provoking ending: he admits that he committed dozens of crimes. One interpretation could be that he was using a sort of sarcasm. The police assumed that every person of Japanese descent was guilty, so the father gave them the exact answer they were looking for.

Protagonist vs. AntagonistCharacter Descriptions, cont. Maura Eveld

Mrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010

The protagonist of the story is the family as a whole. The family is the main character(s), and the story is all about their struggle. The antagonist could be one of two aspects. It could be their Japanese heritage, for if they weren't Japanese, they would have never been sent away. But, perhaps more possible, the antagonist could be the suspicious Americans: the FBI, the unkind neighbors, the camp guards. It was because of them and their racial profiling that any internment camps were established. It was because of them the family's house was trashed upon their return. It was because of them this guilty family had to suffer for years.

What is your interpretation of the last chapter of When the Emperor Was Divine? Did the father actually commit these crimes? Did he actually say those words to the police? How might the family's coping be different if they had been more communicative? If the father had explained what happened while he was away? If the family made more of an effort to talk with their neighbors? Would this have helped them return to a more normal life? Why or why not?

Setting: Physical Environment

Erin WelshMrs. WilcoxEnglish II H30 August 2010

Berkeley, California: The family lives in Berkeley before they are sent away. It's just like any other town with lots of sunny days. The family lived in a white stucco house on a wide street not far from the sea.Time Period: 1940's- the time of WWII. The Pearl Harbor bombings were a hot topic at the time, making many people suspicious of Japanese living in The United States.The Train: The family is on a train being taken to an internment camp for a portion of the story. The conditions on the train were less than desirable. "The seats were hard and stiff and she had not slept since they had left California the night before" (pg. 25). The train was crowded with sick passengers from the uneven rocking of the cars. "The crowded compartments smelled of vomit and sweat and, very faintly, of oranges" (pg. 25). The conditions on the train make it seem like no one cared about how comfortable the Japanese were, which was sadly true.

Setting: Physical Environment, cont. Erin WelshMrs. WilcoxEnglish II H30 August 2010

Tanforan Racetrack (south of San Francisco): The family lived at the Tanforan racetrack for four and a half months. They lived in old horse stalls in the stables behind the racetrack. They slept on mattresses stuffed with straw. They lived on a schedule there, "Twice a day when the siren blew they had returned to the stalls for the head count and three times a day they had lined up to eat in the mess hall on the ground floor of the grandstands" (pg. 30). There was one night there when they couldn't sleep because the flies were very bad.

Setting: Physical Environment, cont.

Topaz, Utah: Topaz was an internment camp located in the desert of Utah. Therewere hundreds of tar-paper barracks sitting beneath the hot sun, all kept in by barbed-wire fences. Soldiers were seen throughout the camp, and everything wascovered in a fine white dust. Topaz sat on a dusty alkaline plain high up in the desert. The camp served no oriental food.The family was assigned to a room in a barrack in a block not far from the barbed-wire fence. Inside the room were three iron cots, a potbellied stove, a single light bulb hanging down from the ceiling, a table, and other small things. There was no running water and the toilets were a half block away. It wasn't like any desert the boy had read about before, "There was only the wind and the dust and the hot burning sand" (pg. 53).

Erin WelshMrs. WilcoxEnglish II H30 August 2010

Setting: Cultural Environment

In an environment like an internment camp, there are bound to be people whose behavioral patterns change significantly from when they are at their own home, comfortable in their own environment.

Mrs. Ueno was the woman's former housekeeper from many years back who was now also living at the internment camp. One evening, the woman was hauling back a bucket of water from the washroom when she ran into Mrs. Ueno. Mrs. Ueno grabbed the bucket out of the woman's hands and insisted on carrying it home for her. The woman tried to tell Mrs. Ueno that she no longer worked for her, but Mrs. Ueno took the bucket and hurried off with it. Many nights, the boy would wake up crying out asking where he was, and the woman would put her hand on his shoulder and tell him to go back to sleep. The boy often thought he was at the camp because he did something wrong.

Erin WelshMrs. WilcoxEnglish II H30 August 2010

Setting: Cultural Environment, cont.

The whole idea of interment camps was to keep the Japanese away from the rest of the American population for fear of Japanese spies, among other things. Innocent Japanese were sent to internment camps, and they had no choice but to go. Both inside these camps and outside of these camps, Japanese were not allowed to live how they wished. They could not even mention the emperor, let alone worship him. They were looked down upon if they ate their food with chopsticks in public. What this caused:

Japanese lied about their race to avoid conflict. Anger for not being allowed to celebrate their culture.

Even though living in an interment camp is never an ideal situation, how do you think the people living there would have behaved if they were given better living conditions? Would they still have acted out in strange ways?What effect did living how other people wanted them to live have on the way they walked through their daily life?

Erin WelshMrs. WilcoxEnglish II H30 August 2010

Point of View:The Mother

Michaela BukatyMrs.Wilcox English II Honors30 August 2010

When the Emperor Was Divine has multiple points of view made up of mostly third person omniscient. The first chapter starts out as the mother's perspective and as the chapters go on, the point of view rotates from the son, the daughter, and the mother. The author started out with the mother's point of view in order to show the tasks that must be done before they would be taken to the internment camp. She packs everything they own, kills the dog, and lets the bird go free. This shows the family getting ready to leave their beloved home for an unknown amount of time. Her outlook on things lets us readers see the difficulties one must face. She also makes the story believable. If it was the boy or girl who were shown killing their dog, it would be hard to believe because children think of pets as part of the family. The mother did what she had to do. I think the author choseto start out with this point of view because of the emotional effect of people leaving has on people. The fact that she killed her own dog and released her bird makes the reader emotionally attached to the story.

Point of View, cont:The Boy:

The boy is a strong character in the story. His point of view can be related to and readers can empathize with him. "Sometimes he worried he was there because he'd done something horribly, terribly wrong. But then when he tried to remember what that horrible, terrible thing might be, it would not come to him. It could be anything. Something he'd done yesterday--chewing the eraser off his sister's pencil before putting it back in the pencil jar--or something he'd done a long time ago that was just now catching up with him." (page 57) This shows how innocent and normal the boy is. Just because he is not white, it does not change who he is inside, which I believe is what the author is trying to tell us through using his perspective. The use of the boy is effective because he allows the reader to get personal with the main characters' feelings. I think the boy is the most reliable source out of the family because he is the one who speaks about the camps, his sister, and his mother the most.

Michaela BukatyMrs.Wilcox English II Honors30 August 2010

Point of View, cont:The Girl:

When the girl narrates, she seems less respectful and thoughtful. Her point of view allows us to see the trainride to the internment camp and the how tough the journey was. It also shows her personality. "'Don't loser that arm,' her mother said under her breath. 'I wasn't planning on it,' said the girl." (page 25) She is a sarcastic individual and is slighty disrespectful towards her mother. Including her as a viewpoint, the author chose to use the girl because every character has something to say. Even though she is not as informative as the boy, the girl is still very important to the story.

Michaela BukatyMrs.Wilcox English II Honors30 August 2010

Point of View, cont:The Father

Michaela BukatyMrs.Wilcox English II Honors30 August 2010

The only time we read from the father's point of view is the last chapter. Unlike most of the novel, the last chapter is in first person. "I'm your slant-eyed sniper in the trees. I'm the saboteur in the shrubs. I'm the stranger at the gate. I'm the traitor in your own backyard. I'm your houseboy. I'm your cook. I'm your gardener. And I've been living here, quietly, beside you, for years, just waiting for Tojo to flash me the high sign. So go ahead and lock me up." (page 143) It is unclear whether the narrator was being sarcastic or if he actually said all this aloud to the FBI.This first person point of view was not reliable because of this mystery. What was said in this chapter was very moving and successful in sending a message. The author chose to include the father's perspective because it tied up some lose ends, yet left the reader wondering.

Point of View, cont:Effect on the Theme

The use of a Japanese family for points of view definitely impacted the theme. If the story was told from a white person's perspective, we would not get the full experience of the internment camps, the injustice towards Japanese heritage, or the hardships a Japanese family had to face. Because of the family's viewpoints, we were able to learn firsthand about their troubles.

Michaela BukatyMrs.Wilcox English II Honors30 August 2010

Do you think the story would be more effective if it was told from only the father's point of view?How do you think things would be different if the mother's point of view would have taken over most of the story?

Style: Imagery and Tone

Julie Otsuka's writing is very simple, but despite not using many words, her imagery is still very vivid. ex: " Her legs were long and thin. Her knees were scabbed. Her calves were pitted with scars from the sand and grit that blew night and day in the wind." (p. 97)

In Otsuka's writing, her characters seem distant tothe reader. She never gives her main characters a name. Throughout the book, they are called the girl, the boy, and the woman or mother. ex: "Her mother placed an old wooden suitcase beneath the window and sat down on the lid so the girl and boy could have the seats to themselves."

Cigi Danda Mrs. Wilcox English II H30 August 2010

Style cont.: Figures of Speech

Metaphor: Otsuka uses metaphors, but they are deeper in the writing. To find them, the reader has to interpret passages in different ways. The figures of speech can help you read more into the characters' mind. ex: "Always, he would remember the dust. It was soft and white and chalky, like talcum powder. Only the alkaline made your skin burn. It made your nose bleed. It made your eyes sting. It took your voice away. The dust got into your shoes. Your hair. Your pants. Your mouth. Your bed." (p. 64)This passage, spent entirely on describing how the dust invaded the characters' lives could represent how the war also completely invaded and changed their lives.

Cigi DandaMrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010

Stylecont.: DictionOtsuka's diction in her writing is formal. She rarely strays from proper grammar when writing dialogue. Her writing almost seems constrained. She uses formal words in her descriptions, and barely uses slang in her writing. ex: "The first snow fell, and then melted, and then there was rain. The alkaline earth could not absorb any water and the ground quickly turned to mud. Black puddles stood on the gravel paths and the schools were shut down for repairs. (p. 77)"Otsuka uses words such as alkaline, and just simply states the timeline as the snow fell, melted, and then it rained.

Do you believe the writing style is a reflection of the culture or situations shown in this novel? If yes, how?

How do you think the writing style affects your feelings towards the characters and their emotions?

Cigi DandaMrs. WilcoxEnglish II Honors30 August 2010

THEMEStruggle for justice for the Japanese community during World War II:

Before the family is ordered to evacuate, many Americans are suspicious of the Japanese Americans. Because of this injustice, the father of the family was arrested. He was seperated from his loving children and wife only because of his race. Throughout the novel, the family is subjected to prejudice and are treated unfairly. For example, when the family returned home, they found their house trashed and vandalized. "The paint was peeling away from the walls and the window frames were black with rot. Shreds of lace curtain dangled in front of the soot-covered panes and the floor was littered with empty food tins and shards of broken glass." (page 108)Also upon their arrival, the family was ignored and felt they did not belong.All of the children's friends acted as though they did not know the Japanese kids. With this theme, the author is telling readers to not judge foreignraces just because others do. Instead, stand with these poor human beingsand treat them as you would like to be treated.

If you were in this family's situation, how would you react?Would you stand by the innocent Japanese people and treat them as your equals?

THEME, cont.Sometimes, the uncontrollable can control your life:

Before the family was relocated, the mother told the children that if anyone asked, they were Chinese, not Japanese. They had to do this to avoid danger and punishment. Perhaps most prominent, they were forced to internment camps for over three years. Thirdly, the mother had much trouble finding a job because of her race. "'The position's just been filled,' she was told again and again. Or, 'We wouldn't want to upset the other employees.'" (page 128) All of these incidents occurred because they are Japanese. They could not choose or control their race, but it is because of their race that their life was controlled.

Visual Representation and Cultural Piece:

The Hisako Hibi Collection Hisako Shimizu was born in Japan in 1907, but she came to the United states when she was thirteen years old. She attended the California School of Fine Arts and married fellow classmate George Hibi in 1930. They had two children. From 1942 to 1945, their family was relocated to the Tanforan Assembly Center and later the Topaz Concentration Camp in Utah. There, Hibi painted landscapes, still lifes, and daily activities that totalled sixty-three in all.

Visit this link to see more of the collection: http://www.janm.org/collections/hisako-hibi-collection/

"Tanforan Assembly Center" San Bruno, CaliforniaAugust 24, 1942

"Topaz, Utah" Topaz, UtahNovember, 1942

"White Heat" Topaz, UtahJune 1943

"A Letter" Topaz, UtahMarch 1945

"A Wind Brought a Storm" Topaz, UtahFebruary 1945