“When the Emperor was Divine” by Julie Otsuka is a historical fiction novel about a Japanese family after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Each chapter in the novel is through the lens of a different family members. Otsuka supports the multiple perspectives in her novel in an interview with BookBrowse and Gene Oishi. The use of distant third person narration allows the reader to create a deeper interpretation of the characters than if there was only one narrator. The novel starts from the perspective of the mother, the reader learns how stoic she has been for her family with the news that they will be going to an internment camp. One of the greatest insights learned about the mother is from the line, “…the woman who did not always follow the rules, followed the rules” (Otsuka 9). From this viewpoint, the reader can analyze who this character is and its significance in the novel. Otsuka supports her usage of this narration style in her interview with BookBrowse. When asked why the novel shifts from the different perspectives of the characters, Otsuka says, “Shifting the viewpoints kept the material fresh for [her]” …show more content…
During this chapter, the girl’s mother begins to comfort her in her sleep, which brings her back to when she was young, “her mother had not called her baby for a long time” (Otsuka 44). She also begins to recall her father and a precious moment she had with him, “This was when…her father had let her walk alone to the corner store…he stood on the front porch and watched” (Otsuka 44). These little moments reveal a lot about the daughter and show very intimate moments she had shared with her parents. Without a direct narration from the girl’s perspective, these details would’ve been lost in the overall meaning of the text. This proves that the use of distant third person narration creates a deeper understanding of the characters for the