Introduction to the Novel It all began with a sign. Posted on telephone poles, park benches, community centers, and a Woolworth's. Executive Order No. 9066—issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt—sought to prevent and sabotage” by citizens of Japanese descent “espionage in the wake of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans were arrested, rounded up, and transported to detention centers across the United States, where in some cases they were held for several years. This sign, introduced in the first line of Otsuka's novel When the Emperor Was Divine, prompts woman” to begin packing important belongings. After her children “the return from school and work quietly on their homework, the woman tells them that tomorrow they be going on a trip.” That trip will take them from a comfortable “will existence at their home in Berkeley, California, to a sterile and uncomfortable internment site in Topaz, Utah, city of tar-paper barracks behind a barbed-wire fence “a on a dusty alkaline plain high up in the desert.” Otsuka's novel unfolds in five different but interconnected narrative perspectives, and moves hauntingly through the family's internment experience in the voices of the mother, daughter, son, and father. The woman and her children recount, in sober detail, the daily events of their journey to—and time in—Topaz, where besides the internees, their barracks, and the soldiers, there was the wind and the dust and the hot “only burning sand.” After the war, the family is permitted to return home. But they return to a neighborhood that is neither familiar nor hospitable. Their home has been vandalized, their neighbors are at best aloof or at worst hostile, and their sense of place in America is forever changed. Though the novel tells a powerful story of the fear and racism that led to exile and alienation, Otsuka weaves a compelling narrative full of life, depth, and character. When the Emperor Was Divine not only invites readers to consider the troubling moral and civic questions that emerge from this period in American history but also offers a tale that is both incredibly poignant and fully human.
Introduction to the Novel It all began with a sign. Posted on telephone poles, park benches, community centers, and a Woolworth's. Executive Order No. 9066—issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt—sought to prevent “espionage and sabotage” by citizens of Japanese descent in the wake of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor. Japanese Americans were arrested, rounded up, and transported to detention centers across the United States, where in some cases they were held for several years. This sign, introduced in the first line of Otsuka's novel When the Emperor Was Divine, prompts “the woman” to begin packing important belongings. After her children return from school and work quietly on their homework, the woman tells them that tomorrow they “will be going on a trip.” That trip will take them from a comfortable existence at their home in Berkeley, California, to a sterile and uncomfortable internment site in Topaz, Utah, “a city of tar-paper barracks behind a barbed-wire fence on a dusty alkaline plain high up in the desert.” Otsuka's novel unfolds in five different but interconnected narrative perspectives, and moves hauntingly through the family's internment experience in the voices of the mother, daughter, son, and father. The woman and her children recount, in sober detail, the daily events of their journey to—and time in—Topaz, where besides the internees, their barracks, and the soldiers, there was “only the wind and the dust and the hot burning sand.” After the war, the family is permitted to return home. But they return to a neighborhood that is neither familiar nor hospitable. Their home has been vandalized, their neighbors are at best aloof or at worst hostile, and their sense of place in America is forever changed. Though the novel tells a powerful story of the fear and racism that led to exile and alienation, Otsuka weaves a compelling narrative full of life, depth, and character. When the Emperor Was Divine not only invites readers to consider the troubling moral and civic questions that emerge from this period in American history but also offers a tale that is both incredibly poignant and fully human.
Emperor%20Discussion%20Guide%202017%20.docx