When The Emperor Was Divine Sparknotes

Weng and Harsfield
Mrs. Weishaar

ELA 1

May 16th, 2023

The Horrors of the WWII Japanese American Internment camps

Japanese internment camps were a dark time in US history, many people have forgotten the troubles that Japanese Americans had faced during this troubled time. When the Emperor Was Divine is a book published by Julie Otsuka, a Japanese-American writer, which discusses the events leading up to and after the incarceration of the Japanese within America in WWII. The Japanese Americans were wrongfully taken out of their homes without any evidence of wrongdoing and were imprisoned due to prejudice and not necessity. Otsuka portrayed in the book that Inside these incarceration camps the conditions were unsuitable for human life, and

Otsuuka writes, "There were outbreaks of flu and diarrhea and frequent shortages of coal. They had been assigned only two army blankets per person and at night the boy often fell asleep shivering. His hands were red and chapped from the cold. His throat was always sore"(92). This type of condition was not unusual at these camps. An example of something similar to this occurred at the Topaz Lake incarceration camp, "Most of the Japanese Americans who lived at Topaz were from the San Francisco Bay Area. Confronted with the camp's high desert conditions, Japanese American detainees busied themselves to make Topaz livable and as comfortable as possible. They plugged the holes in their units, dug irrigation ditches, farmed, and raised chickens, turkeys, hogs, and cattle. They also planted thousands of trees and other plants" (Okihiro,“Topaz”). From the start the Topaz relocation camp saw resistance due to these conditions. Japanese Americans were very strong so they tried their best to stick through

All they wanted was just to go home and have everything go back to normal. The dreadful conditions of these camps did not only affect the residents physically but mentally as well. Otuska states, "She said she no longer had any appetite. Food bored her " (Otsuka 94). The effect of these camps upon its residents is unmeasurable. Many people had long lasting health problems and the effect of these camps on their mental well being could have been even worse. But, Otsuka realism in some cases is not brutal enough compared to real life internment camps. Okihiro states “The camp was the site of a fatal shooting on April 11, 1943. On an evening stroll, 63-year-old James Hatsuaki Wakasa wandered too near the fence and a guard, after several verbal warnings, shot and killed him. Wakasa was facing the soldier when he was killed. Before this incident, there were eight previous warning shots fired at Japanese Americans near the barbed-wire fence. Without witnesses, there was only the guard's account and speculations that Wakasa might have been distracted or did not hear the warning (he was hard of hearing) before the sentry shot him from a watchtower some 300 feet away” (Okihiro,”Topaz”). Japanese Americans will forever remember the horrors that occurred when they were placed in internment camps. Obviously, watching a man get killed in front of you is more than a good enough reason to have some long lasting