A story told from five different points of view chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of World War II internment camps.
Sunday, September 9, 2007
Otsuka, Julie. When the Emperor Was Divine.
A story told from five different points of view chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of World War II internment camps.
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7 comments:
The book "When the Emperor was Divine" lacked plot line in my opinion. The book was a slow read until the end when they are all reunited. Once you get into the book though, it becomes more enjoyable. Although it was historical fiction, the ideas were reasonable and believable.
I thought that the book "When the Emperor was Divine" by Julie Otsuka was boring in the beginning. However after they have left the concentration camps, the book became more interesting. I thought the last chapter was the the most important. It was a good book overall.
This is a very low key book, something to read on a beach maybe. The story is realistic, and gives us the picture of what life was like in the Japanese camps. If you read Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata, then you would enjoy this book.
I have to say that this book was very complex and seemed to have nearly no visible plot. The story basically jumped around the life of a American-Japanese family during WWII. It did however do an excellent job of portraying the horrors that American citizens went through due to their ethnicity. This book was not to interesting, but it held alot of dark truths from our country's history.
I thought that the book "When the Emperor was Divine" by Julie Otsuka had a lot of detail and did a good job of showing the difficulties and challenges that American-Japanese families faced during WWII. To me the book seemed boring and had no flow. The author basically just told us about the day to day life of the family. The book also seemed to have a lot of imagery, but it seemed to always be the same things you were seeing. Overall the book was o.k. but seemed a little dull.
When the Emperor was Divine is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever read. The author is writing about life for Japanese Americans during World War. The experience the family she is describing had was not a unique experience with a unique plot -- it was an experience shared by thousands and the conclusion was not unique. Otsuka could not have written the novel as a cliff hanger because we all know historically what happened to these people. Also character development was not important because she is telling a universal story. It is the style in which she wrote that makes the novel unique. The accumulation of details about the experiences these people had puts us right there. It is horrifying that the United States government could treat its own citizens in this way -- and the horror grows, culminating in the experience of the father who not just sent to the camps but who was sent to prison -- a dignified businesman, a United States citizen, who never left the house wearing anything but his hat and suit was taken away in the middle of the night in his pajamas and slippers and imprisoned and humiliated for no reason. We may not have killed those imprisoned as the Nazis did and did not drive car bombs into their neighborhoods as insurgents in Iraq do, but we striped them of their possessions, their homes, their livelihoods, their dignity, their sense of security, their humanity. It is an important event not to forget. The author put us right there living through all the details of their life. I cannot think of a more effective way for her to tell the story than the way she told it.
I loved this book and was initially puzzled at students' reaction. However, as I worked with students on this book, I learned that with a teacher's guidance, they enjoyed it more than when they read it alone. I showed them excerpts from "Rabbit in the Moon" a movie made by Japanese-Americans in which they talk about their experiences in the camps and which includes footage taken at the time. They were particularly incensed by the US propaganda newsreel touting the wonderful opportunity the Japanese Americans had with all the comforts of home -- they had been forced from their homes in southern California where they had all the comforts of home, and now had to walk blocks to the bathroom or dining hall in the freezing cold or extreme heat of the desert while living the rest of the time in one room.
Also the students I talked with didn't know about rationing, the painting "The Gleaners," Audubon's "Birds of America," the Dionne Quintuplets, and so forth, so they did not understand a lot of the details that put the reader in that place at that time. I brought a copy of the Audubon book, a book about the Dionnes, a print of "The Gleaners" and pictures of shopkeepers dealing with thousands of ration coupons to the discussion, and we talked about what knowing about these things added to the understanding of the book and time period.
Someone commented that the main character was all over the place, but that is not true. The first section is from the viewpoint of the mother, the second from the viewpoint of the daughter, the third from the viewpoint of the two children, and the final one from the viewpoint of the father who had been in prison. Some students did not understand that he was so broken from his constant interrogation that he just confessed to everything, no matter how absurd, and the defeated man who returned to his family never returned to his old self -- very much like the father in the Hollywood movie starring Dennis Quaid - "Come See the Paradise."
This is a very important book and improves with rereading. We pride ourselves on being open minded and many feel we would never do such a thing again, but I have heard radio interviews with American Moslems who have faced the breaking up of their families because of their treatment at the hands of their neighbors and (former) friends.
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