When the Emperor was Divine - Essay Example

The story is told from the perspective of the anonymous family, and it has special meaning. It does not matter what were the names of family members because they became simple outcasts in the eyes of Americans. The author calls her personages simply: a mother, a girl, a boy, and father which means that similar events happened to almost all Japanese families: they were simply turned to enemies. The story has four different narrators. First chapter is told from the Mother`s perspective who probably was affected the most by this unexpected exile as she was responsible for two little children at the absence of the husband.

The journey on the train from their home in California to Topaz War Relocation Center is described by the daughter of the family while the family`s staying in inhumane conditions in the camp is described by the boy. The fourth chapter is told from the position of the father, however he uses the pronoun “we” which can be understood as “we” the family or “we “-Japanese. It is possible to compare this novel to Bernard Schlink`s “The Reader” but this will be a comparison through opposition.

In the story told by Schlink the main character, Hanna, does not feel any regret about her past service for the Nazi camp and tries to forget it with the help of books and strange love. The author raises a difficult question of conscious of the whole nation, and for Germans as well as for Japanese this question turns out to be very difficult as it touches each and every citizen. However, in “When the Emperor was Divine” the life of the characters, even the smallest one, is changed from the very beginning of the war.

They become outcasts and they start feeling ashamed for their origin. These events influenced every character of the book in a different and serious way. The mother of the family faced