When The Emperor Was Divine Summary

The Oppressive Destructions of Culture in World War II America After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, racism and discrimination against Japanese Americans was at an all time high. Many Americans were afraid the Japanese Americans were spies for the Japanese army, and others simply didn’t like them because of their appearance. These uncertainties led president Franklin D. Roosevelt to enact Executive Order 9066, which confined Japanese Americans to internment camps across the United States. Just like the family in When the Emperor was Divine, by Julie Otsuka, the Japanese Americans of this time endured countless hardships and accounts of racism and prejudice. Searching for any way to stop the mistreatment, many families began to destroy any items or practices that could

After he is taken from the family, the Mother decides she must destroy anything that could possibly trace their family to Japanese culture. The author shows the destruction of these material items by writing: “That evening she had lit a bonfire in the yard and burned all of the letters from Kagoshima. She burned the family photographs and the three silk kimonos she had brought with her nineteen years ago from Japan,” (Otsuka 75). The FBI raid left the mother traumatized and afraid of her family’s livelihood. Knowing she was in possession of clothes, pictures, and letters that could easily be found by the FBI as evidence of Japanese heritage, she decided to sacrifice her own memories for the safety of herself and her children. When the family is ultimately removed from their home by the government and arrives at the internment camps, the mother no longer has to worry about material items tracing them back to Japanese culture, as the government has banned all things