Name: When the Emperor was Divine
Rating: 3.925 (40 reviews)

Julie Otsuka

These beautiful, passionate stories make up an immensely powerful short novel about the Japanese American experience in World War II.

When the Emperor was Divine

Lindsay

“I was afraid I might accidentally remember who I was and . . . offend myself.”

From the bestselling, award-winning author of The Buddha in the Attic, this commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese internment camps that is both a haunting evocation of a family in wartime and a resonant lesson for our times. On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her home, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans they have been reclassified, virtually overnight, as enemy aliens and are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty internment camp in the Utah desert. In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism. When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines.

When the Emperor Was Divine

Julia

3.5. I liked the writing style of Otsuka.

Laurel Yoder

It’s a book that will stay with you long after you have read it. I read it maybe 5-7 years ago and it comes to mind still as a great read.

Omar AlHashmi

Well that took some time to finish unfortunately. To be honest this book wasn't as good as Buddha in the Attic. I think the problem was that I read that book first. I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to go into Otsuka's books to first read this one and then Buddha in the attic, or just read Buddha in the attic. Because it is difficult not to draw parallels between the two books as they mainly have the same theme of hardships that Japanese people faced in America during the war. What I love about Otsuka's writing style and why I continued on with the book is that her descriptions are so beautiful. Her writing style just pulls you into the world she is creating. The thing that annoyed me about this book actually took me out of the world. That was the way the children talked. I mean they were like 5 and 7 years old and they spoke as if they were 20. It felt so disconnecting and that was the only thing that really turned me off of the book. However again her writing style and descriptions are absolutely beautiful which is why im giving it a 4/5

kenzy paugh

** spoiler alert **
           last chapter was my favorite

Laura

A great quick read. It was an insight to a period Americans like to minimize. Very well written

A story told from five different points of view chronicles the experiences of Japanese Americans caught up in the nightmare of the World War II internment camps.

A Novel

Judy Hudgins

Interesting book on a part of WWII we don't get taught in schools. One of the Big Read possibilities for 2016 for our library.

Taylor Roth 

Had to read this going into my freshman year of college as the first assignment of the semester and I gotta say I really enjoyed reading this book. The book wasn't slow nor was it too fast with the chapters but I felt that Otsuka wrote them beautifully. I was a little confused at the way the book ended but other than that I rate it a 5 stars.

Longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction, When the Emperor Was Divine is the critically acclaimed debut novel by bestselling writer Julie Otsuka - author of The Buddha in the Attic - in which she explores the lives of Japanese immigrants living in America during the Second World War. It is four months after Pearl Harbour and overnight signs appear all over the United States instructing Japanese Americans to report to internment camps for the duration of the war. For one family it proves to be a nightmare of oppression and alienation. Explored from varying points of view - the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train journey; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return home; and the bitter release of their father after four years in captivity - it tells of an incarceration that will alter their lives for ever. Based on a true story, Julie Otsuka's powerful, deeply humane novel tells of an unjustly forgotten episode in America's wartime history. 'Honest and gloriously written, will haunt you long after you've turned the final page. Brilliant' Elle 'An intense jewel of a book written with clarity and beauty' Marie Claire 'Vindicates the suffering of the Japanese in America . . . a blistering first novel' The Times Literary Supplement 'A compelling, powerful portrait of a terrible endurance. Terrific' The Times Julie Otsuka was born and raised in California. She is the author of the novel When the Emperor Was Divine, and a recipient of the Asian American Literary Award, the American Library Association Alex Award, and a Guggenheim fellowship. Her second novel, The Buddha in the Attic, was nominated for the 2011 National Book Award. She lives in New York City.

When the Emperor was Divine

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