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When the Emperor Was Divine
When the Emperor Was Divine | Julie Otsuka
60 posts | 81 read | 79 to read
The debut novel from the PEN/Faulkner Award Winning Author of The Buddha in the AtticOn 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.
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vlwelser
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Pickpick

This book is amazing. Not sure I was in the head space for something that punches you in the gut in the first section but that does not make this less amazing. The author has a unique narrative style that I appreciate.

#BookSpinBingo @TheAromaofBooks (it's possible that I am behind and this was a January book)

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!! I still have a chapter left in my January BookSpin as well lol 2mo
jlhammar Agreed! Love Otsuka. 2mo
48 likes2 comments
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KristiAhlers
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Pickpick

So this title is featured on a few banned booklists and that in and of itself disgusts me. Yes, this is a hard read but one I feel everyone should take time to read. This is part of my Japanese culture and author reading challenge. This author is so very good and I will definitely pick up more of her titles.

LeeRHarry I read this ages ago and I don‘t think I knew it was a banned book 🤷🏼‍♀️ - which is such an archaic and ridiculous notion - I recently read The Swimmers and unfortunately it wasn‘t a fave. 13mo
jlhammar That really is disgusting. And crazy. Loved this one and her other books. 13mo
KristiAhlers @LeeRHarry I was going to pick up The Swimmers today also but decided to hold off. I'll give it a read in the future but decided to start with this title. 13mo
55 likes3 comments
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swynn
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Pickpick

(2002) It's a small, lean story about a family taken into an internment camp during WWII. It's powerfully effective in communicating both the experiences of the imprisoned Japanese-Americans, and the outrage of the nation's actions. Highly recommended.

Also: banned from the curriculum in a Wisconsin school district for being too one-sided. Which pretty much tells you which side the school board is on. And why we need to keep reading #BannedBooks

swynn Also: this was my #BookSpin read for November, which I completed just under the wire. Thanks @TheAromaofBooks ! 1y
Texreader Great review. Thank you!! 1y
TheAromaofBooks Great progress!! 1y
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jlhammar This was banned? That is insane. Great book. 1y
swynn @jlhammar Right? The story as I understand it is, that some new school board members had campaigned on fighting “critical race theory,“ and (apparently finding few better targets) worked to ban WTEWD from the curriculum.
https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2022/06/22/wisconsin-school-district-rejects-book-...
1y
jlhammar Wow, that is really disheartening. Thanks for the link! 1y
CuriousG @swynn This is infuriating! It seems to me that the same people who are always saying "you can't erase history - you should learn from it", in relation to their opposition of statues coming down or names of things being changed, somehow reverse their opinion and think it's okay to erase history when it clearly demonstrates terrible things we should learn and not repeat ? 1y
swynn @CuriousG One hundred percent. 1y
29 likes4 stack adds8 comments
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swynn
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My #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin picks for November: a banned book about the Japanese Internment; and a 3 Investigators mystery. Looking forward to these. Thanks @TheAromaofBooks !

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! Enjoy!!! 1y
22 likes1 comment
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ChaoticMissAdventures
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Pickpick

A small but impactful book about one American family's forced internment in a Japanese camp during WWII and the after effects. Otsuka's choice to not give the characters names makes the work feel both more intimate and like these people could have been anyone - even you. Masterfully told and an important American tale to know.

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NovelNancyM
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“There were the people inside the train and the people outside the train and in between them there were the shades. A man walking alongside the tracks would just see a train with black windows passing by in the middle of the day. He would think, There goes the train, and then he would not think about the train again. He would think about other things. What was for supper, maybe, or who was winning the war“ (49).

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rachelk
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Pickpick

I loved ‘The Buddha in the Attic‘ so when I was told how incredible Otsuka‘s debut novel was, I had to read it too. This is also a slim book chronicling the experience of Japanese Americans in the 1940‘s, but this one focuses on a family. I love Otsuka‘s writing, she breaks my heart in a thousand tiny ways and makes me feel as though I‘m living inside the story. This will stay with me. ❤️

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Daisey
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#BookReport #DaiseysReadingWeek
📖 When the Emperor Was Divine

#CurrentlyReading
🎧 Sense & Sensibility #PemberLittens
📖 From Striving to Thriving
📖 The Silmarillion #FellowshipofTolkien
📖 & 🎧 Love‘s Labour‘s Lost #ShakespeareReadalong
🎧 Moby Dick #LitsyBookClub

#WeeklyForecast
📚 Just catch up & keep up with current readalongs

Sace I always have a wild card in the back of my head 😂 4y
Daisey @Sace I am pretty sure I borrowed this idea from you, since I have no specific plan for what to read next. It seemed appropriate. (edited) 4y
Sace @Daisey Awww! Yeah, since Litsy I'm a little better better about planning my reads (just a little), but you never know when a hold will come in or something will strike your fancy. 4y
51 likes3 comments
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Daisey
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Pickpick

This book is written in a style that felt sparse and distant. It fit the topic, a family‘s experience in a Japanese internment camp, but it also kept me from feeling connected to the characters. I especially appreciated the end sections describing the experience of the family and soldiers returning to their homes after the war.

#CatsofLitsy

Mitch Beautiful kitty xxx 4y
TheLibrarian What a cute kitty! 😍 4y
jewright Hi, Gandolf! 4y
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Daisey @jewright He also appreciates me bringing the hammock along. He had been in it and then moved to the floor in the corner while I was reading. 4y
Sace He's so beautiful! 4y
Daisey @Sace Thank you! 4y
65 likes2 stack adds7 comments
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Daisey
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I‘m reading a few more pages of this novel with a homemade baked chocolate doughnut this morning. I understand reasons authors choose to write a story without names, but it also sometimes keep the story a bit distant.

#BookAndBreakfast

BethM How‘s the donut? 4y
Pageturner1 enjoy the book, devour the chocolate 4y
Daisey @BethM Well, they were much better when they were fresh baked, but this leftover one was still good. 4y
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Daisey @Pageturner1 always! 😊 4y
BethM Do you have a recipe 😍 4y
Daisey @BethM It came from a Great British Baking Show cookbook. I can copy it out if you‘re ok with metric quantities and really brief instructions. Or if you want me to send a photo via email. 4y
jewright I think you might need to make these when you come back. 4y
BethM A photo or copy is fine! 4y
Daisey @BethM I tagged you on a photo of the recipe so you can screenshot, but I‘ll delete later as I don‘t feel right leaving complete recipe pages public. 4y
Daisey @jewright I saved the recipe for later, but I don‘t have doughnut pans. These are R‘s. 4y
56 likes10 comments
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KathyWheeler
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Julie Otsuka‘s When the Emperor Was Divine is our Common Read book this year. She was here tonight as part of that. Her stories were really interesting— WtEWD is such a serious book that I was surprised when she said that she at first envisioned herself as a comic writer.

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Tamra
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My thrifty finds - I‘ve been wanting to read the tagged book so lucky day! I read Mrs. Dalloway so long ago I don‘t recall anything about it, maybe the second round will leave an impression. I enjoyed the Candleford series on TV - I‘m guessing the trilogy will be a terrific comfort read when I‘m back in another course next week. 😢

cathysaid Ahhhh...one of my favorite passages comes from Mrs. Dalloway ❤️ 4y
Tamra @cathysaid then I must read it. 😁 4y
Cathythoughts I love that old cottage cover ♥️ 4y
69 likes3 comments
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Nebklvr
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New books arrived!!

SW-T You‘ve got some good stuff there! Happy reading 😊💕📚 5y
Monica5 I thought City of the Lost was so good. I love the series. Hope you do too. 📚📖❤❤ 5y
Nebklvr @SW-T I had good stuff on my shelves too. 🤭But hadn‘t gotten new books in a while. 5y
Nebklvr @Monica5 I hadn‘t heard of it before. If it is good, will donate to the library. 5y
58 likes4 comments
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Nebklvr
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Mehso-so

The story was good, the writing so-so.

KathyWheeler This is going to be my university‘s Common Read book next year. I‘m interested to see how the students react to it. 5y
Nebklvr @KathyWheeler I didn‘t connect with the characters like i did with Ford‘s but it was short and not difficult. 5y
50 likes2 comments
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bell7
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Mehso-so

This short novel of a family sent to the Japanese internment camps during World War 2 packs a powerful punch. The lack of characters' names distances them, yet at the same time, presents an almost universal example of what the experience was like for a family. And that example is heartbreaking, all the more powerful for the spare writing style. It makes for a very uncomfortable reading experience - which is precisely what it's meant to be.

bell7 First book completed in the #WinterStormReadathon 5y
19 likes1 comment
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bell7
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Here are the books on the docket for today's #WinterStormReadathon along with my morning coffee. Tagged book is on the Kindle and I'm #currentlyreading the top 3 and the bottom will be the next one to start after finishing one.

charl08 Love Otsuka: hope she is still writing. 5y
bell7 @charl08 I really enjoyed The Buddha in the Attic so I'm hoping this one is just as good! 5y
kspenmoll Love your mug! Enjoy reading @winterstormreadathon 5y
bell7 @kspenmoll thanks! I'm dogsitting at someone else's place so can't take credit for the mug 😁 it is lovely though 5y
20 likes4 comments
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KathyWheeler
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Pickpick

Nothing much happens in this beautifully written novel — a Japanese family is transported to an internment camp in Utah during WWII, while the husband and father is imprisoned elsewhere as a dangerous enemy of the US. The characters are nameless but you empathize with them anyway because you‘re let into the psychological worlds they inhabit.

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KathyWheeler
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Up next for the Common Read consideration reading and for the #24B42019 readathon.

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LiterarySloth
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Pickpick

This book follows an unnamed Japanese family as they‘re sent to interment camps during World War II. You follow the story through different points of view. It‘s so sad to see the struggle that they went through just for being Japanese at a time of war.

I recommend this one. I thought it was beautifully written.

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LiterarySloth
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I have my cuddle buddy here as I start on another book. I‘m excited to read this one.

RadicalReader @LiterarySloth gorgeous kitty!! What is its name? 5y
LiterarySloth @RadicalReader Ariel! She‘s a little monster but she‘s my cuddle buddy when I read 5y
6 likes2 comments
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Amiable
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Pickpick

A slim novel that packs a punch, this is about a Japanese family in the US who is forced into an internment camp during WWII. Each chapter tells the story from the point of view of a different family member: mother, father, daugher, son. It's a sobering look at a dark time in our nation's history--and a warning for our nation's current political rhetoric.

BookishTrish I really loved this book years ago when I read it #mustreread 5y
Zelma This book is one of my favorites and turned Julie Otsuka into an auto-buy author for me. Definitely read her next one 5y
Amiable @Zelma I have read that one--I liked it even better than this one! 👍🏼 5y
63 likes3 stack adds3 comments
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meeshobi
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Pickpick

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Insightsintobooks
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Ohh it went down in price, from 12.99 to 5.99 yay!! To bad, I can't get it right now.

43 likes1 stack add
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HannaPolkadots
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Mehso-so

Three out of five stars, maybe? I liked it, but felt the story was a bit unfinished - I wanted more.

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HannaPolkadots
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My #tbrpile for February. Reading To the Lighthouse (thanks @Sarah83 ) for book club, and Judas (thanks @Cinfhen ). Also very much looking forward to rereading Nuruddin Farah and to read Siri Hustvedt. #readinggoals #readingresolutions @Jess7

Cinfhen Ambitious month💕happy reading 6y
HannaPolkadots I know @Cinfhen , but schools close for winter break so I'm counting on some extra reading hours then 😉 6y
27 likes2 comments
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raeintheworld
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Pickpick

This book hits on all of the cruelties of the internment: being taken away from your home, your life, your loved ones, your job, as well as the difficulty of coming back (or not, as most people found there was nothing to go back to).
The picture is a piece of a my Hiroshige print I recently received from my uncle. 💙💙💙💙

25 likes2 stack adds
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raeintheworld
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Book and afternoon snack.

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TheHeartlandBookFairy
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Pickpick

This book was both difficult to read and a pleasure! It covers a time frame of the Japanese internment camps from the viewpoints of four nameless family members, the mother, the Father, the girl, and the boy. They almost lost me in the beginning at the white dog but I'm so glad I stuck with it! Perseverance, resignation, ostracisation, misperceptions, assumptions and Prejudice. This book should be required reading!

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TheHeartlandBookFairy
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"And if anyone asks, you're Chinese."
The boy had nodded. "Chinese" he whispered. "I'm Chinese." "And I," said the girl, "am the Queen of Spain." " In your dreams," said the boy. "In my dreams," said the girl, "I'm the king." Love "the girl"! #Thebigreadholland

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cosmicgoddess
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Pickpick

This book put my life in perspective. I‘m impressed with myself because I read the whole thing in one day. Well written with deep meaning. 10/10

DebbieGrillo That is an accomplishment. Congrats! 6y
1 like1 comment
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cosmicgoddess
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Started reading this book this morning. It‘s a different genre and style from what I normally read but so far I‘m enjoying it.

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Alliterati

Already hating this book. Only a few pages in, and the main character has killed a dog, one that trusts her?! Yuck, completely unnecessary.

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Wbabdullah
Pickpick

I'd def recommend this book to be read for #socialjustice. It beautifully captures what happens with mental health in war and conflict...when you're turned into a stranger in your own home...because you look and seem foreign. Othering. And the anxiety, angst, and OCD that comes with being torn apart from family, home, and familiarity because you're deemed an enemy. This book is about life in #japaneseinternment but it says so much more.

Wbabdullah I'd like to also say that this book and all my other #japaneseinternment reads are sprung because of how the cycle of American discrimination runs. As a Muslim scarf-wearing woman, I wonder what this country has in store for me. I really do. I can check off a couple of categories on my heritage that would be markers for discrimination. But I'm American. I have no other home. And thank you ancestry.com--I've been American for generations. 7y
Wbabdullah I literally can't find anything else in the records besides being American! Don't worry, in the same mode of Otsuka's last chapter, I will find some foreignness with a DNA Ancestry kit one day for all the haters out there that might be offended by my seemingly unreconcilable "foreign-looking" presence. ??? 7y
Bklover I am a midwesterner from Illinois-also an American. I wish you kindness and comfort and safety here in your own country. Always. ❤️❤️ 7y
Wbabdullah Thanks for the love @Bklover . I think well-read and educated folks who have been exposed to the world, like Littens, often aren't the problem :). I love Illinois! Chicago is my second city! I know it pretty well. Myself, I'm a native Washingtonian--the Capitol building was literally my playground growing up. Could walk to it. It's still sorta in my backyard but it would take a while to walk to it now. I'm in Maryland just across the border! 7y
17 likes1 stack add4 comments
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Wbabdullah
Pickpick

Just finished this gem after sunrise. It resonates with me. It was a good literary meal, full of strong prose and imagery. Satisfying, short, 5 chapters, to the point. Took some restraint to not photograph every other page for a beautiful sentence or two. I still have some quotes to share with you! I kept this book out for a week past it's due date because it had a hold on it and I really wanted to finish it--does that say enough for you?

DivineDiana Yes, it does. Stacked! 7y
16 likes1 comment
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Wbabdullah
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"Be patient. And remember it's better to bend than to break." (p. 78)

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Jbakesmcgee3
Pickpick

This was a gorgeously written, powerful novella about Japanese internment camps during WWII

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Jbakesmcgee3
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Next up! Reading this w my mom and all her friends 😊

DivineDiana What could be a better mother/daughter activity? 💗 7y
Jbakesmcgee3 @DivineDiana totally!!! 💚 7y
19 likes2 comments
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Jolynne
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Pickpick

Oldies but goodies! #oldiebutgoodie

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Smrloomis
Pickpick

A beautiful, purposeful build to the end. Highly recommended, especially if you're reading about Japanese internment these days. #LitsyAtoZ #japaneseinternment #japaneseamerican #WWII

Zelma This book and her next one, Buddha in the Attic, has made Otsuka one of my favorite authors. ❤️ this book! 7y
Smrloomis @Zelma YES! I loved both of these, too. 👍🏽 7y
enidkeaner My American Lit teacher had is read this in high school (she was dedicated to teaching more than 'dead white guys', as she put it) and oh my god, I loved this book! The chapter when the dad has his 'confession' effected me so much! 7y
Smrloomis @enidkeaner awesome. I still remember some of the things my high school lit teacher assigned because I loved them. I went through a nonfiction phase on Japanese interment years ago, but this is one of the few fiction versions I've read. I also liked Ford if anyone else has missed that one 😀 Other suggestions welcome! 7y
74 likes4 comments
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Smrloomis
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Starting this now 😀

readinginthedark It's a good one! 👍🏻 7y
Emily92Bibliophile Thank you for sharing! I have been looking for books about the Japanese-American Internment camps; unfortunately I feel my history courses in college / high school didn't do it justice in what they decided to teach, an am looking for a couple good solid books about this subject. 7y
EvieBee Yay! Loved this. 7y
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Smrloomis @readinginthedark @EvieBee84 I read Buddha in the Attic and loved it, so I felt like I had to read this one too. 7y
Smrloomis @Emily92Bibliophile my pleasure! Her style is kind of particular; I loved the first one I read by her but I can see how others might not. I've also liked Jamie Ford's book and Snow Falling on Cedars by Guterson. 7y
EvieBee Buddha was such a good book also! 7y
readinginthedark @Smrloomis I haven't read that one yet, but I need to! 7y
Smrloomis @EvieBee84 Yes! @readinginthedark can't recommend it highly enough! 7y
78 likes3 stack adds8 comments
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BiblioNyan
Pickpick

The is a simple story told via 5 mesmerising perspectives about a family that was uprooted & sent to a Japanese internment camp from their home in Berkeley to the Utah desert. The language is natural & so pure that it's unbelievably haunting, especially when you contemplate exactly what's going on. More so when you remember that this actually happened to people. It's an important book. A profound & surreal book. A book everyone should read. 5/5.

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BiblioNyan
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My heart is feeling a thousand different things right now. One of them is cold fear and concern. This is something that may happen within the next few years. History should be a lesson from which to grow and learn. Not a fucking itinerary by which to live and destroy. This book... is so powerful & profound.

#amreading #quotes #whentheemperorwasdivine #julieotsuka #ownvoices #japaneseinternment

JazzFeathers I so agree 7y
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BiblioNyan
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This is turning into one of the most phenomenal books that I've read all year.

#amreading #whentheemperorwasdivine #julieotsuka #japan #japaneseinternment #diversebooks #diversereads

WW2Reads An absolutely amazing book! 7y
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BiblioNyan

Just a few pages in and I already know this is going to be an emotionally intense book about a dark and uncomfortable period of American history (Japanese internment experience). I will say this: the writing is absolutely stunning.

#amreading #whentheemperorwasdivine #julieotsuka #ownvoices #diversebooks #diversereads #japaneseinternment #warfiction

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Smrloomis
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Ok so while I was waiting for my library hold, I also had to buy these 😉

RealLifeReading So many good books here!! 7y
Smrloomis Oh and borrow that Tahar Ben Jelloun 7y
Smrloomis @RealLifeReading so far all I've started is the Jemisin, but I can't wait to open the others 7y
Suzze Maisie! One of my favorite series. 7y
Smrloomis @Suzze I was surprised to find my library didn't have it, so I guess I can give it to them if it isn't my thing 😁 7y
116 likes1 stack add5 comments
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balletbookworm
Pickpick

A beautifully wrought novel about the trauma inflicted upon Japanese-Americans through the (totally shitty and racist) internment camps of World War II. By not specifically naming the family members they represent any family who suffered this degradation but also highlights how whites tended to see all Asians as one group as opposed to many individuals.

readinginthedark This is such a good book! 7y
27 likes4 stack adds1 comment
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Heidsalot
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Pickpick

Finished just in time for book club tonight, which is really good since this was my pick 😆! I thought a book about the internment of Japanese Americans in WWII would be really relevant to what's happening today, you know, 75 years later...... #LitsyAtoZ

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Heidsalot
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My pick for this month's book club. We're meeting on Tuesday, so I gotta get crackin!

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Jenken1998
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Pickpick

I ❤️ both these books! Beautiful writing. Stories around the removal and internment of Japanese Americans during WW2. I found myself wondering if history is going to repeat itself.