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Racial Injury In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

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When the Emperor was Divine is a novel written by Julie Otsuka that shines a light on the heartbreaking circumstances a Japanese family endured during World War II. The family, consisting of a mother, a father, a daughter, and a son live a comfortable life in Berkeley, California until they had to pack up and unknowingly move to Topaz, Utah. Living in the desert, the mother and her two children get accustomed to the harsh conditions at the camp and try to survive in hopes of returning home. Throughout this time, the family experienced extreme racism, discrimination, and prejudice during and after the war which created long-lasting consequences that changed their life for the worse. The exposure to such hardships is an example of racial injury, …show more content…

This separation happened after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and as a result, the United States government was trying to find any Japanese “spies” that might have an alliance with Japan (p.127). Throughout the novel, both the mother and father experienced several more examples of racial injury. This trauma caused various symptoms in both parents in the course of their detainment and persisted well after they were released. One of their preeminent symptoms was …show more content…

The parents had more of an understanding of the conditions they lived through and were able to grasp why they were forced to be in a camp or in a detention center; this had a severe effect on them, which made them develop symptoms that deteriorated their mental health. The children, however, were still too young to fully understand the connections between World War II and the Japanese people having to go to a concentration camp. The children were traumatized but still had hope that their life would return to normal. The difference in their behaviors shows the family members’ respective age affected the way they coped with their racial injury

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