Theme Of When The Emperor Was Divine

War is a concept that, unfortunately, many people have become accustomed to. Many of these people believe that in their lifetime, there will be a WWIII. When this concept is brought up we think about all the brave heroes that sacrifice their lives to protect our country. What we forget sometimes is everyone they leave behind. The bravery needed to go through everyday without knowing where someone you love is. In the short story"Deuce Out” written by Katey Shultz, and book, When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka, we see the theme of war and the effect the theme has on relationships. The symbol of letters is mentioned many times throughout the texts and shows how these relationships were impacted. The letters show a connection between the

That there is such a thing that could harm so many people. In When the Emperor was Divine written by Julie Otsuka, we witness a boy lose his father, who was taken by the war to a concentration camp. Sometimes entire sentences had been cut out with a razor blade by the censors and the letters did not make any sense. Sometimes they arrived in one piece, but with half of the words blacked out. Always, they were signed, “From Papa, With Love.” (Otsuka 541). Not only does this quote show how the father would talk to his son, but also the limitations there were with this form of communication. The government which was controlling the letters, wouldn't allow certain things to be said. It mentions throughout the story that in every letter, he never showed his son how bad where he was staying was. He always stayed positive to not show his son the struggles of how it was on the inside, while always finishing his letter with an endearing message. In the letters, these endearing messages and conversations that steer away from the concentration camp, I believe it made the boy not worry for his father as much as he would if the letters were not censored or if his father wasn't trying to protect

In When the Emperor was Divine it is seen the boy as time passes, him being away from his father longer, and longer. The only thing he has is the letters that his dad sent him through the year. “On December 7 it will have been a year since I last saw you. I read your letters every night before I go to bed.” (Otsuka 549). A kid wants his dad to read him to sleep, not to be reading the letters he sent from a concentration camp, but in the world that we live in, sometimes we need to deal with it. The boy in this story went through a whole year of his life that was taken from him and his father, but at least he had the letters to communicate with each other to not be complete strangers. This once again just shows how important it was for this boy to keep his father in some aspect of his life and that wouldn't have been possible without the