Essay On When The Emperor Was Divine

Today when one hears about World War II he automatically thinks of concentration camps and how horrible the Germans were. However, the book “When the Emperor was Divine,” which is based on true scenarios, shows the hardships faced by the Japanese in America after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. “When the Emperor was Divine” is told from the point of view of a Japanese family to show the hardships faced by many Japanese descended families. The story is fiction but uses scenarios faced by many Japanese families. In the story the family was sent to an internment camp and faced horrendous hardships during their time in the camp. The internment camps and the way the Japanese were treated show an issue of social policy in this story. An issue

At the camps the temperature in the winter was typically “near or below zero” (Topaz Camp) and during the summer the temperature would “soar to the nineties or above.” (Topaz Camp) At the Topaz camp the air was very dry and the “alkaline earth could not absorb any water” (Otsuka 77) so when it rained or snowed the ground became very muddy causing the schools to be “shut down for repairs” (Otsuka 77). The dry and earth caused constant dust clouds which made it difficult to breath for the young boy who pressed a “scarf to his face” (Otsuka 48) in order to stop himself from coughing. Often there were dust storms making it nearly impossible to see and when the boy slept he would cover his mouth with a wet rag but would still wake up with a “gritty taste of chalk” (Otsuka 77) in his mouth. In the cooler climates school children would take “their benches outside to sit in the sun” (Topaz Camp) in order to gain a little warmth while the classrooms were being finished. At the end of September in 1942 “the first killing frost was recorded” (Topaz Camp) then just weeks later the first snowfall was recorded. In many of the barracks there were “no windows installed” (Topaz Camp) at this time making it nearly impossible to escape the harsh cold. The Japanese were forced to succumb to the harsh climate of the desert, with nearly no shelter or breathable air, because of crimes that most of the detainees did not