When The Emperor Was Divine By Julie Otsuka

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. In the beginning of the novel, otsuka describes how the mother of the family felt after being notified that they will be taken away to the camps. She doesn't show any emotions, once she sees the signs she goes straight into action, the mother knows that her family cannot take the dog with them to the camps, so she kills him with a shove, she released the bird as well. The bird was a sign of the mother losing hope, that bird was the last living thing that had her husband inside of it . MORE

The girl was very mature and during the whole experience of the internment camps we see her struggle of her trying to fit in and trying to figure out who she is. There was a moment on the train where she met a man named Teizo who she felt like she could reinvent her image to. She was in line waiting for the restroom where she dropped her scarf. She then told the man that her father is rich and they go to Paris together. And that is where she got her scarf from. We see another example of her trying to figure out her identity in the camp where sahe rebelled and started She pulls away from her younger brother and mother as she spends more time with friends and experiments with testing social boundaries by smoking cigarettes and staying out past curfew. We then see that when she returns from the camp, she loses this rebellious streak and becomes obedient, afraid of once again being mistaken for the enemy and being sent back to the