When the Emperor Was Divine

                When the Emperor Was Divine, by Julie Otsuka, begins by painting a vivid picture of life in America circa 1940 for the average Japanese-American family.  However, as the reader delves deeper, it is apparent that what is happening to this family is not average at all, but instead a tragic symbol of the actions of a racist and paranoid government, in a post Pearl Harbor world.

                Though all the characters introduced at the beginning of the novel (Mother, Brother, and Sister) hold much importance to the theme of strength and loss of humanity, the Mother best reflects the entire emotional journey one would take when losing their identity and becoming prisoner of a government who claims they have your best interest at hand, yet deny you of any and all civil rights earned as a citizen of the United States of America.

In order to express the range of emotion the mother is going through, Otsuka uses the first chapter to allow the mother time to reflect on what was happening, while displaying the immense reaction she was having to the thought of the unknown future of her husband and children.   “The bird spread his wings and flew off into the night.  She went back inside the kitchen and took out a bottle of plum wine from beneath the sink.  Without the bird in the cage, the house felt empty.  She sat down on the floor and put the bottle to her lips.” (pg. 48) Mother would not let the unidentified inevitable negate her responsibility to her children, and eventually her husband.  Instead she carries on, deciding to let the future come to her.