When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka

In April 2007, the Jarrettsville book group got together to talk about When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. I can recommend this book for men or women, adult or teen, because it appeals to both the intellect and the emotions. It is eminently discussible, both for its themes and the artistry with which they are laid out.

Publisher’s Reading Group Guide

ABOUT THIS BOOK
It is Berkeley, California, the spring of 1942. Pearl Harbor has been attacked, the war is on, and and a woman reads a sign in a post office window. Though we do not know what was printed on the sign, we see the woman ready herself and her two young children for a journey that will take them to the high desert plains of Utah. They travel by train and gradually the reader discovers that all on board are Japanese American, and that their destination is an internment camp where they will be imprisoned “for their own safety” until the war is over. With stark clarity and an unflinching gaze, Otsuka explores the inner lives of her main characters—the mother, daughter, and son—as they struggle to understand their fate and long for the father whom they have not seen since he was whisked away, in slippers and handcuffs, on the evening of Pearl Harbor. As the publisher said, “Moving between dreams, memories, and sharply emblematic moments, When the Emperor Was Divine reveals the dark underside of a period in American history that, until now, has been left largely unexplored in American fiction.

REVIEWS
The book received several starred reviews, and was recommended for both adult readers and for older teens. It appeared on several editor’s choice lists and on Books for The Teen Age list for 2004 and 2005. It won the Alex Award for adult books with appeal for teens. These are some of the things that reviewers said:
“Otsuka…demonstrates a breathtaking restraint and delicacy throughout this supple and devastating first novel…”
“…this spare and poignant first novel…”
“A carefully researched little novel…”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Asia Source interview with Julie Otsuka
Random House conversation with the author (includes photo)
Barnes and Noble Meet the Writers (includes photo)

BACKGROUND TO THE BOOK
This is Otsuka’s first novel. It is based on the actual experiences of her grandparents in WWII. After Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were taken forcibly from their homes, some males were imprisoned or at least interrogated. Often families were split up and the women and children taken to internment camps in very remote and inhospitable places, where they suffered keen physical privations as well as the psychological and economic devastation of being interned by the government they considered their own.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

What did you think of the opening of the novel?
The internment of tens of thousands of Japanese Americans during the war has been universally condemned in recent years; however, can you ever see an occasion where the denial of individual civil liberties in favor of the greater good would be right?
Otsuku’s writing has been criticised for being too spare and unsentimental. What do you think of her emotional restraint?
Details abound in the book. What do you think the cumulative effect of all these details is?
What do you think of the relationship between the mother, the daughter, and the son?
What do you think of the resolution and stoicism of the mother? Is there anger at the injustices the people suffer?
The family is alienated from everything they knew. How does Otsuku convey their alienation?
What do you think of the attitude of their neighbors?
What happened to the spirit of the woman’s husband? Is the depiction of his character believable?