When The Emperor Was Divine Essay

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.
Due to Executive Order 9066, Japanese people experienced even more discrimination as they got forced out of their homes, leaving all of their belongings behind.

Although the trains had windows, the Japanese Americans were forced to keep the blinds shut covering the windows. The windows had to be covered when nearing cities and places where the Japanese Americans could be seen by the outside world. otherwise, the windows were allowed to be uncovered, but most commonly, the windows were covered. The windows were covered for safety so that no one could see in and so that the Japanese Americans would not know where they were. The imagery of the sister showing her brother the mustangs out the window shows how they were confined to the train and felt isolated from the rest of the world. The line “‘They are going away'’”(46) while looking out of the window and seeing the wild horses run away. The outside world was free as the Japanese Americans were constrained. Just like the horses the outside world turned away and refused to acknowledge what was happening to the Japanese Americans being stripped of their rights. The imagery of seeing the horses outside the window shows how the boy longed to be free like the rest of the world. The window that has to be kept covered is acting as a barrier physically between the Japanese Americans and the rest of the world. The brother seeing the wild horses before the window was covered up again symbolizes the divisions between the Japanese people and the outside world. The rest of the world is on the outside watching but not doing anything, while the Japanese people are constricted to the train with the windows covered being forced and locked into internment camps. The outside world does little to help and watches these awful things happen to the Japanese Americans by the