ipl-logo

Examples Of Trauma In When The Emperor Was Divine

1047 Words5 Pages

Derek Duncan Martica Rogers Period 6 L202 1 March 2023 A Ten Year-Old Preconceived Anomaly In 1942, the United States issued an executive order that resulted in the coerced relocation and internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. Julie Otsuka’s novel, When the Emperor was Divine, provides an intimate and affecting portrayal of the internment experience through the eyes of a Japanese-American family. Otsuka’s novel offers a poignant exploration of the long-term impact of historical trauma on individuals. The novel heeds the experiences of a mother, father, son, and daughter as they are forcefully obligated to leave their home in Berkeley, California and are sent to an internment camp in the Utah Desert. While all members of the family are affected by this experience, it is the unnamed girl’s experience that stands out to the reader. In Julie Otsuka’s novel, the girl’s transformation is a powerful example of the profound impact of historical trauma on individual identity and development. In what ways does When the Emperor was Divine illustrate the impact that internment can have on the emotional and psychological health of a younger person? Through the depiction of the girl’s physical and psychological transformation, Julie Otsuka’s novel details the devastating effects of internment on an innocent child; which in turn, illuminates the profound impact of historical trauma on …show more content…

This narrative technique creates a nuanced and complex portrayal of the family's experiences which highlights the individual struggles and reactions of each character. It is through this narrative structure that the reader witnesses the transformation of the daughter from a happy and carefree child to a deeply traumatized and withdrawn individual. The girl is forced to leave behind everything she knows and loves and is confronted with a new and unfamiliar

Show More
Related

Summary Of Mary Matsuda Gruenewald's Looking Like The Enemy

1284 Words | 6 Pages

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald tells her tale of what life was like for her family when they were sent to internment camps in her memoir “Looking like the Enemy.” The book starts when Gruenewald is sixteen years old and her family just got news that Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japan. After the bombing Gruenewald and her family life changed, they were forced to leave their home and go to internment camps meant for Japanese Americans. During the time Gruenewald was in imprisonment she dealt with the struggle for survival both physical and mental. This affected Gruenewald great that she would say to herself “Am I Japanese?

Read More

An Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

957 Words | 4 Pages

In When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka (Otsuka). we see how five different Japanese Americans live through times of Internment and the struggles they face. An interview with Julie Otsuka and Gene Oishi helps us learn more about her and her family’s experiences during internment and personal connections to the book. “The Public “I” of Julie Otsuka” by John Streamas (Streamas).

Read More

Symbolism In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor

620 Words | 3 Pages

When the Emperor was divine is a very interesting book. It explains the story of the WW1 internment camps from the point of view of the Japanese people and what they went through. It also includes many forms of symbolism that can completely change the story’s meaning. It also tries to imply how “American” the Japanese-American internees really were.

Read More

1940s California And Utah Expository Essay

447 Words | 2 Pages

Erika Hernandez Mr. Rodriguez American Literature 31 May 2023 1940s California and Utah Expository Essay In the 1940s, major events were occurring in America, including the Holocaust, World War II, atomic bombs, and the beginning of the Cold War. The events of WW2 in the 1940s lead to further actions that deeply impacted the Japanese American community. In 1942, just two months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, as commander-in-chief, used Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. The first internment facility to be established was the Manzanar War Relocation Center near Lone Pine, California.

Read More

When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

503 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel when the emperor was divine written by Julie otsuka. Otsuka describes the experiences of the Japanese internment. The relocation of Japanese-Americans into internment camps during World War II. while there was terror in Europe with the Nazis and Jews the Americans accused the American-japanese of being spies for japan. Julie uses different characters in the book to describe how the camps treated them, from their point of view.

Read More

An Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

1684 Words | 7 Pages

Like many children her age, the girl in Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine had the opportunity to attend a “summer camp.” However, the camps that the girl and her family endured were not like traditional summer getaways but instead state-sponsored prisons designed to keep the populace “safe.” Instead of enjoying the water slides and rope swings that other children her age got to experience, the girl struggled with establishing an identity that fit with the rest of her society. With her use of neutral tone and language, Julie Otsuka explores the creation of the cultural identity that is established by the Japanese-American people as they are confined in Concentration camps designed to keep the nation safe. Pulled from their homes,

Read More

Farewell To Manzanar Book Report

588 Words | 3 Pages

The book is a powerful true story of Jeanne and her family’s life before, during, and after being inside a Japanese American internment camp. Most of the setting in this book takes place during World War Ⅱ. Jeanne tells of her and her family’s hardships and struggles in adjusting their life in cramped barracks, and searching for purpose in the internment camp. Jeanne, being the narrator and author of this book, took an unemotional and observational take to describe her events in this book because she wanted to keep the factual accounts separate from her emotions and to show people the impact of Pearl Harbor had on

Read More

Racism In Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

536 Words | 3 Pages

The novel When the Emperor Was Divine tells a story of Japanese-American families during World War Two. During internment, the U.S. government rounded up many Japanese adults for investigation without first producing evidence that they committed any crimes. The father in this story has been arrested for the sane reason. Army would deport all Japanese Americans to military camps, thus commencing Japanese American internment. So, the woman with her girl and her boy have to move to a camp.

Read More

Themes In When The Emperor Was Divine

753 Words | 4 Pages

Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was divine is a novel that takes place right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the beginning of the novel, the Japanese American family consists of a mother with her two children. They are in a turning point of their lives. There are posters and signs indicating that anyone with japanese ancestry must evacuate. Immediately the family starts feeling the rejection of their neighbors and people around them.

Read More

When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

1233 Words | 5 Pages

When the Emperor Was Divine: Analysis In the midst of the long awaited ending of World War II, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were forced into relocation centers across the west coast. After being held in the relocation centers for as little as weeks to as long as a couple months, the detainees were put on trains and sent to internment camps where they spent several years in isolation. In the novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, Julie Otsuka fuses historical content with fiction to tell the story of a family losing everything to the forces of Executive Order 9066.

Read More

Analysis Of When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

345 Words | 2 Pages

“When the Emperor was Divine” written by Julie Otsuka is a book about a Japanese American family who faces discrimination and is forced into an internment camp in World War II. The novel conveys the challenges they endure and the impact of the camps on their lives. In this novel, the family had to submit to American culture due to the pressure of being afraid of being the enemy causing self-hatred and internalized racism. When people are forced to submit to a culture they lose their sense of self.

Read More

When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

1639 Words | 7 Pages

People worldwide were affected by the events of WWII. Ever wondered what had happened to those descendants of the Japanese, after Pearl Harbour? In the book When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka, she writes from the point of view of a Japanese-American family after Pearl Harbour. A Japanese-American family had been told that they were to leave in the morning to go to the internment camps, because of the attack on Pearl Harbour. In the middle of the book we find out that before they were told they would be put in these camps, their father had been taken in the night while trying to sleep.

Read More

Looking Like The Enemy Analysis

1010 Words | 5 Pages

Matsuda’s memoir is based off of her and her family’s experiences in the Japanese-American internment camps. Matsuda reveals what it is like during World War II as a Japanese American, undergoing family life, emotional stress, long term effects of interment, and her patriotism and the sacrifices she had to make being in the internment camps. Everyone living in Western section of the United States; California, Oregon, of Japanese descent were moved to internment camps after the Pearl Harbor bombing including seventeen year old Mary Matsuda Gruenewald and her family. Matsuda and her family had barely any time to pack their bags to stay at the camps. Matsuda and her family faced certain challenges living in the internment camp.

Read More

Theme Of Subdued Identity In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

1456 Words | 6 Pages

Subdued Identity: The Aftermath of Traumatic Events on Character and Habit Throughout the stages of life, chapters of both good things and misfortunes unfold. In a chapter of misfortune, where it seems like it is the lowest point of one’s life, many share with others around them: “I feel trapped and I don’t know what to do.” Others suffer silently, without the support of friends and family, whether by choice or not. Nevertheless, the feeling of rock bottom is never forgotten. In Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine, a Japanese-American family during World War II is forced to give up much in the face of rising nationalistic tensions, prejudice, and being forced away from their home, particularly their identities.

Read More

When The Emperor Was Divine Essay

897 Words | 4 Pages

Discrimination is a powerful word that can describe how many Japanese Americans felt in the 1940s. The book When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka is a story about a Japanese American family whose father gets taken in the night by the police. It is a story about how the family's mother, daughter, and son navigate the Japanese internment camps. Being confined, constrained, isolated, and having their freedom taken away when they are transported to an internment camp are common elements of this family's experiences after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and can be seen on pages 45 and 46.

Read More

More about Examples Of Trauma In When The Emperor Was Divine

Related Topics

Open Document