When the Emperor was Divine

I found this way in which this book was written very intriguing.  None of the family members are given a name, which is fitting for the subject matter as they were reduced to identification numbers in the eyes of the government.  Still, perspective changes from character to character throughout the book.  It was an easy read, but a heavy subject matter... I have never understood how a government is able to single out one group of people and turn the entire nation against them.  As a nation, the U.S. continuously speaks of the cruelties and atrocities of other nations (Hitler/Germany, Darfur, Sudan etc) and never admits faults in its own actions.  At one time is was anyone of African American descent, then Irish-Catholics/Immigrants, then Japanese (as we see in this novel) and even today, especially since 9/11, many people have become prejudice against anyone of middle eastern heritage or the islamic religion.

I found the last chapter the most moving and powerful.  The rest of the novel seems to build up slowly, gradually... I liked that there was a change in the end, that the father was finally brought into the book more... I feel that this structure made the ending far more striking, I felt that it finally brought all of the true feelings to the surface and asked the questions that I had been asking the entire time I read... Though I have never experienced this discrimination myself, I understood the anger and frustration exhibited by the father in the final chapter of the book.  What did the powers that be of the government want to hear? How was one supposed to prove his or her loyalty to the United States? Why was everyone so paranoid?  It something about human nature, the ability to turn against one another for superficial reasons, that I will never understand. 

One passage outside of the ending which I found particularly moving was when the boy wondered why he was in the camp?  He thought that "he'd done something horribly, terribly wrong. But then when he tried to remember what that horrible, terrible thing might be, it would not come to him. It could be anything. Something he'd done yesterday - chewing the eraser of his sister's pencil before putting it back in the pencil jar-  or something he'd done a long time ago that was just now catching up with him" (57). He did not know why he was forced to leave his home and live in a dirty dusty place with little food, lack of comforts and nothing to do.  He blames himself.  I cannot imagine the effect that this would have on a child...