Luis Miguel Orozco

Dr. Burlingame

English 15

December 13, 2016

Fucking Final

When the Japanese army attacked Pearl Harbor during World War II in 1941,

Americans start to think that Japanese in America where going to support their

country by spying and sabotaging, so the government took action and sent the

American Japanese to military camps. In the novel “When the Emperor was Divine”,

Otsuka lets the reader understand the situation of the Japanese culture since her

family had to go through the internment and experience the racism and bad

treatments. The story shows how by just belonging to a different race, Japanese where

treated differently. On “Evacuation number 19”, “Train” and “When the emperor was

divine” Otsuka describes from tree different points of view a Japanese family that is

going through an unlawful internment and having to deal with being deprive of their

liberty. This novel talks about two very important themes that were an issue during

World War II and that are still seen today, and that is racism, because even though

Japanese were blamed of allying with the Japanese government but there was no

evidence at all so that is why this can be seen as an act of racism and discrimination of

culture, and the second important theme is social class and the American Dream,

because Otsuka narrates the life of a family with class that has accomplished the
American Dream and how their status and wealth cannot protect the family from

internment and racism.