Synopsis:
Julie Otsuka’s commanding debut novel paints a portrait of the Japanese
internment camps unlike any we have ever seen. Otsuka uses a single family to evoke the deracination—both physical
and emotional—of a generation of Japanese Americans. In five chapters, each
flawlessly executed from a different point of view—the mother receiving the
order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train ride to the camp; the son in
the desert encampment; the family’s return to their home; and the bitter release
of the father after more than four years in captivity—she has created a small
tour de force, a novel of unrelenting economy and suppressed emotion. When the Emperor Was Divine is a
haunting evocation of a family in wartime and an unmistakably resonant lesson
for our times.Melissa says: It gave an enlightening perspective on the severe hardships the Japanese Americans had to endure during WWII.
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