##olation In Julie Otsuka's 'When The Emperor Was Divine'

Japanese American families were sent to internment camps located at a desert in Utah almost in less than 24 hours during World War ll. It was supposed to be luxurious and a dream, yet it was the complete opposite. In the book, When the emperor was divine, Julie Otsuka describes each character and their stories through different points of views. She tells their story by recounting each of the main character's emotional experiences while showing the life of Japanese Americans and how they were labeled in others eyes. Otsuka writes not only about the venture of being taken to an internment camp, but how each character changes in the process. Through each person comes a story and why they changed into somewhat the opposite of their

These brief descriptions and use of characterisation of society suggest that feeling of isolation for the narrative that is describing this, is already in an isolated or alienated position so the use of the dark colour just adds more to the isolated feeling and the dark emotions. As the short story advances, so does the suggestion that the main character is alienated or isolated. She is tired, exhausted, but does anything for her daughter “Estoy casi tan cansada como el día en que la puse en el mundo…Exhausta.” The mother seems occupied with her daughter but by herself there is sadness about her, loneliness, the mother is more a solitary character, meaning that she doesn’t need anybody but her and her daughter and being free of emotions and involvements with others. Which only adds to the idea of isolation surrounding this character, an example being “doy de la dirección de casa de las abuelitas, un lugar concertó donde se que todos seremos felices la niña y las abuelas charlando, y, yo fumando un cigarrillo, solitaria y en paz”. But now the character of the mother will become even more lonely as she says goodbye to her daughter because it’s that part in the story where the daughter is experiencing her first day of school

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, America felt exposed as potential dangers, now realized, ominously lurked along the home front. False reports of Japanese espionage spread rapidly fueling hostility, fear, and racial prejudice. In an Executive Order signed by president Roosevelt, America responded, removing Japanese-Americans from their homes and shackling them within internment camps. Relocation was not obligatory but mandatory. Based on the experiences of close family members, Julie Otsuka, in her novel entitled When the Emperor was Divine, captures the transition of a nameless Japanese-American family from normalized citizens to ostracized foreigners. Oasis to desert, her vivid imagery nuances a deeper sense of meaning

The mood of the speaker changes to guilt as the speaker and her mother realize they would "crawl" with "shame" and leave an "emptiness" in their father's heart and yard. The author negatively connotes "crawl," "shame," and "emptiness" to invoke a more serious and shameful tone. The beginning of the conveyed a more matter-of-fact and pragmatic tone, but changes into a more sentimental one by the end to convey family is more important than the money. The symbol of the tree represents the family, and connects it to their father's hard work and dedication to the family. If they were to cut it down, it would be symbolic of their betrayal. Imagery of the tree is used to describe the freedom and beauty of the tree as it "swings through another year of sun and leaping winds, of leaves and bounding fruit." The tree represents their family bond and how strong it is even through the "whip-crack of the mortgage."

The novel when the emperor was divine by Julia Otsuka shows the lives of a Japanese family during World War II, and the struggles they endure. These struggles were shared among many Japanese families in the U.S. during this time. The hardships this family faces change their personalities drastically and plays with there grasp on the real world.

Julie Otsuka’s novel When the Emperor was Divine leads the reader through the journey of one family that represents many as they are placed in an internment camp for the crime of being Japanese. Otsuka brings to light the persecution of Japanese-Americans through her use of symbols prominent throughout the book. Some of the most important being the symbol of stains, their family dog, and horses. Each has a double-meaning pointing towards the theme of widespread racism. Racism that led many Japanese-Americans into believing that they were guilty.

In When the Emperor was Divine, the author, Julie Otsuka, uses her choice of narrator to represent the overall image of Japanese Americans throughout the war. At the beginning of the first chapter, the narrator is the mother who is very proper and clearly trying to fit in. This is demonstrative of how Japanese Americans were treated like any other citizen before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. After the attack, the Japanese Americans became isolated and hated and were forced to leave their homes. When the mother receives an evacuation notice, she has to pack up and hide all of her family's possessions. The family has an old dog and she decides that she has no choice but to kill it. The Americans saw anyone with Japanese heritage as brutes who have no compassion and it is this belief that causes the mother to have to commit and brutal action. By using the mother as the first narrator, Otsuka depicts the change of the overall opinion of the Japanese Americans.

The Japanese-American author, Julie Otsuka, wrote the book When the Emperor was Divine. She shares her relative and all Japanese Americans life story while suffering during World War II, in internment camps. She shares with us how her family lived before, during, and after the war. She also shares how the government took away six years of Japanese-American lives, falsely accusing them of helping the enemy. She explains in great detail their lives during the internment camp, the barbed wired fences, the armed guards, and the harsh temperatures. When they returned home from the war they did not know what to believe anymore. Either the Americans, which imprisoned them falsely, or the emperor who they have been told constantly not to believe, for the past six years imprisoned. Japanese-Americans endured a great setback, because of what they experienced being locked away by their own government.

The author at 16 years old was evacuated with her family to an internment camp for Japanese Americans, along with 110,000 other people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast. during the time in the camps he struggled for survival and dignity, and endured psychological scarring that has lasted a lifetime.

Yoshiko Uchida was born November 24, 1921, in Alameda, California. Her mother was a poet, and her father a businessman. During her senior year in 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, and Uchida, along with other Japanese Americans, were sent to relocation camps. She worked as a teacher while attending the camp. Despite the embarrassment and agony of her past, Uchida created profound stories full of sense to both reader and the topic displayed.Yoshiko Uchida used her experiences in the concentration camps, the prejudice she faced in high school,her tradition at home and her Japanese history to create her characters and the conflicts in her books.

The inspiration for my project came from the book When the Emperor was Divine by the manner of a quote by which it showed stereotyping “So go ahead and lock me up. Take my children. Take my wife. Freeze my assets. Seize my crops. Search my office. Ransack my house. Cancel my insurance. Auction off my business. Hand over my lease. Assign me a number. Inform me of my crime. To short, too dark, too ugly, to proud (Otsuka 143)”. Although we, as a county, have gone a tremendous way in the area of racial issues, segregation and stereotyping, we still have tremendous work to be done in the area of stereotyping others still. The book When the Emperor was Divine shows the perspective of someone with a different culture, showing that not everyone is the same as one another, but we are similar in abounding ways.

Many things fall these days, and Rome is no exception.” 22 emperors were assassinated in only 50 years, and only 3 weren’t killed violently.”What this means is that the Rome’s leadership was falling apart, in many more ways than one, first of all was this, that 22 Emperors in the matter of 50 years is a huge amount of deaths that’s almost 1 emperor being killed every 2 years. Normally the emperor's will live for 10 or more years but since many people wanted to rule the area they became greedy and killing of their own men.

In the Eyes of the Emperor I understood something that I have heard multiple times over and over, which is to not judge a book by its cover. I understood that it meant to not judge something before you know it in a deeper level. In this book the narrator, Eddy, was the one being judged because of his heritage and through him I got to feel what it was like to be judged . With the Lieutenant and some other people judging Eddy he did not get a lot

White, to believe that the people next door are making love. She and Ms. White "slithered up and down the skirting board" (page 53), trying eagerly to hear what "the heathen" were doing. However, at the same time as Mother's natural interest peeked through, she suppressed them by condemning Next Door's behavior.

“The Last Emperor” was a very interesting film, rich in historical truth and an accurate portrayal of past events that occurred in China during the 1900s. The story was very easy to follow and gave a more modernized approach to teaching the impacts of historical proceedings by using the English language but not forgetting to keep the facts in order. This approach gave me the opportunity to see the different actors as if it were truly identical to what this time period was all about. Given that the plot was centralized around Puyi, the last Emperor of China, and the director did an excellent job making the movie fit the timeline.