La storia è fatta dai vincitori, quindi è ovvio che si sappia poco dei campi di internamento giapponesi in USA. D'altrone in Europa c'erano altri campi, con finalità ben diverse, ad aver catturaro tutta l'attenzione.
Julie Otsuka, con lo stesso stile delicato ma meno frammentato di Venivamo tutte per mare, racconta tale internamento dal punto di vista di una famiglia di 4 persone: madre, padre, un figlio e una figlia. I genitori sono immigrati, ma i figli si sentono solo americani (non parlano nemmeno giapponese). Eppure la loro vita tranquilla viene stravolta in poche ore, quando il padre è portato via, di notte e senza nemmeno dargli il tempo di vestirsi, in un contesto kafkiano dove nulla si sa della ragione di un tal gesto.
La madre è una donna forte e orgogliosa e tira avanti fino alla comparsa di volantini in cui si annuncia che tutti i cittadini di origine nipponica dovranno trovarsi a un centro di raccolta in un certo giorno. Il romanzo inizia appunto con la signora che prepara la casa prima della partenza, con la mente già orientata al ritorno. Ma nel viaggio, e nella permanenza nei vari campi, la forza di questa donna viene erosa. Tutto, specialmente la vita del bambino, ruota attorno all'attesa per quel padre portato via senza motivo. La normalità di prima diventa mito, diventa una mancanza dolorosa che la nuova routine non riesce a limitare. Quando poi la situazione si risolve il ritorno alla normalità delude, perché la normalità ricordata e rielaborata ha poco a che vedere con la realtà.
Davvero un ottimo racconto

n  Review originally published February 2004n

The subject of war is not a topic I particularly gravitate to when selecting books for leisure reading. However, I recently discovered two fiction books with war-related themes that I consider very good stories. [See previous review on The True Story of Hansel and Gretel for discussion of the first book.]

The second novel about war is When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka. This is Julie’s first novel and she has received high praise from many prestigious reviewers. She takes a theme that is difficult to imagine ever happening in America: the internment camps for the Japanese after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

She introduces to us a typical American family. Mother is a homemaker; father has a good American job; the children, a girl age 10 and a boy age 7, are good students in an American school. They have a nice American house in a nice American neighborhood in the city of Berkeley, California.

Then in 1942, the mother sees a sign in a post office window and in a short time all things that are American are stripped away. The mother and children are put on a train and taken to an alien internment camp in Utah. The father is taken away by the FBI and held in New Mexico. The horror story begins.

This author brilliantly tells us the story of their banishment, exile, and reinstatement into American society. She writes a novel of honesty without melodrama. She writes a novel about mass hysteria with coolness and precision. It is a novel that makes you stop and think about what is happening to civil liberties today and hope we are not repeating history.

Library Journal calls her book “clear elegant prose (that) makes these themes accessible to a range of reading levels from young adult on.”

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n  n    "War is never an easy subject to read about. War is heartbreaking, tormenting and brutal. But since the beginning of time, it has been a fact of life. War will cease (only) when men refuse to fight."
-Anonymous, 1936n  n  
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DNF: I expected this book to be depressing but I didn't count on it being boring. I couldn't get past the train trip to Utah. I suppose the author gave no names to the characters so the reader would understand that it was an "everyman/woman" tale but it made it difficult for me to care about said characters. And I suppose the simple language was meant to convey the tedium of their lives but it read as agonizingly boring for me, so much so that I threw down my bookmark and surrendered. Life is too short to read a boring book.

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چه کسی در جنگ پیروز شد؟ چه کسی شکست خورد؟ دیگر مادرش نمی خواست که بداند. دیگر حوادث را دنبال نمی کرد. دیگر روزنامه نمی خواند. به بیانیه ها و اخبار رادیو گوش نمی کرد. می گفت: «هر وقت تمام شد خبرم کنید.»
گاهی در نگاه مادرش جایی در دوردست ها پدیدار می شد. پسر می دانست دارد به جایی دیگر فکر می کند؛ جایی بهتر.
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پدرمان، پدری که هر شب، در تمام سال های جنگ به یاد داشتیم زیبا و قدرتمند بود. سریع، مطمئن و با سری بالا راه می رفت. برای مان نقاشی می کشید. آواز می خواند و همیشه می خندید. مردی که از قطار پیاده شد، از پدر پنجاه و شش ساله ما خیلی پیرتر بود. دندان های مصنوعی داشت  و هیچ مویی روی سرش نبود. وقتی در آغوشش بودیم، می توانستیم استخوان های بدنش را از روی پیراهنش حس کنیم. او برای مان نقاشی نمی کشید، با صدای لرزان و فالش آواز نمی خواند. برای مان داستان نمی گفت. بعدازظهرهای یکشنبه وقتی حوصله مان سر می رفت، وقتی کاری برای انجام نداشتیم، تکه های قوطی های کنسرو را به شاخه های کوچک و ظریف نمی بست و زیر نور، روی ملافه های سفید که بیرون پهن بودند با ما سایه بازی نمی کرد. برای مان چوب های بلندی که به پای مان وصل کنیم، درست نمی کرد.
البته مادرمان سریع به این نکته اشاره کرد که ما برای بازی با چوب پا، برای داستان و سایه بازی پشت ملافه ها، خیلی بزرگ شده ایم.
جواب می دادیم: "بله ... بله... بله، حتی برای خندیدن هم زیادی بزرگیم."
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اولین بار بود که کتابی درمورد تاثیرات جنگ بر روی مردم ژاپن میخوندم، اون هم مهاجرین ساکن آمریکا. هر بخش کتاب از زبون این خانواده چهار نفرست و اتفاقاتی که بر اثر شروع جنگ بر سرشون میاد. بخش هایی که بالا آوردم به ترتیب درمورد مادر و پدر خانوادست. پدر که بی هیچ دلیلی و به جرم ژاپنی بودم و چشم بادامی بودن بازداشت میشه و تحت شکنجه قرار می گیره، مادری که باید در نبود شوهر، فرزودانش رو به اردوگاهها منتقل بکنه و سه سال و نیم پر از رنج و گرسنگی و خفقان رو تحمل بکنه. با شنیدن اسم جنگ بی درنگ خون و اسلحه و بمب در ذهنمون تداعی میشه ولی از تاثیرات بدتر جنگ بر افرادی که در میدان جنگ نیستن غافل میشیم. جایی از کتاب بخوبی به این شعر ژاپنی اشاره میکنه "به خاطر میخی نعلی افتاد، به خاطر نعلی اسبی افتاد، به خاطر اسبی سواری افتاد، به خاطر سواری جنگی شکست خورد، به خاطر شکستی مملکتی نابود شد و همه ی این ها به خاطر کسی بود که میخ را خوب نکوبیده بود.".
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کتابی کم حجم و تاثیر گذار، با ترجمه ای خوب و دلنشین. بخوانید حتما تا نفرتتان از جنگ بیش از پیش شود.

Devastatingly straightforward depiction of the United States’ xenophobic desire to barricade and to forget.

לסקירה מפורטת בעברית ובאנגלית, קישור לבלוג שלי -

https://sivi-the-avid-reader.com/כשהק...

Julie Otsuka maybe one of my favorite authors now. The way she writes and tells stories of my ancestors just gets to me. I am by nature sensitive, but these books mean so much. Heartbreaking and yet reliving. Sometimes we need our stories told. Another book that can very easily be read in a day or an hour or two even.

Meh. This book was so-so. I picked it up on the library on impulse (even though I already have mountains of books waiting for me--it's a sickness) because I saw that this book was about the "Japanese internment camps." I had just read The Garden of Evening Mists and had just learned about the camps built by the Japanese for the Chinese in Malaysia. That's what I mistakenly thought this book was about and I was excited to learn more. I soon realized my mistake but I thought I'd give it a go anyway.

It didn't really do it for me. The writing wasn't very skillful. It didn't feel like there was any character development at all. Actions, conversations, and passages are included that just seem out of place and don't do anything for the story. Conversations between the sister & brother, the conversation the girl had on the train with "Ted" where she told him her dad doesn't write to her even though he does..., things the mom did...it all left me scratching my head like, "Why did you even include that?"

I thought it was interesting that none of the main characters are named--indeed, it seems that only white people and the random Ted have names in this book. I thought it was an interesting device. I felt the strongest parts were the ones that talked about former internees' experiences after release and the final chapter. But overall, it really left me wanting and it wasn't a very satisfying or enjoyable read.

One good thing about it is that it is a really really quick read...so if you're really interested in the internment of citizens of japanese ancestry you might gain something from it.

I am 65 years old and have never read a book about the Japanese Internment after Pearl Harbor. I have had mini discussions about it through my long life, but I am actually disturbed that until now, I have not compassionately engaged in contemplating how harsh, how cruel my country was to this group of Japanese Americans.

The author uniquely presents one family's journey of four plus years of the father being criminalized and sent to prison, and the mother and children being forced to leave everything behind to face a desolate existence on the backside of a desert far far away from everything home. Told mostly through the eyes of the young 7year old son until he was 11, the reader is forced to face the tragic way we treated our fellow citizens, our fellow human brothers and sisters. Now in 2016, I have no choice but to realize what we are doing when we decide to judge our Muslim human families in categories that make them all dangerous and cause us to think life would feel more secure, if we could just rid ourselves of them all. White privilege became more real, and the journeys so many face without it made me feel ashamed and guilty.

It was also interesting for me to read how these Japanese Americans felt the guilt and shame of white neighbors and fellow Americans coming home scarred and horribly changed by the war, many dying there, and leaving them somehow feeling responsible as Japanese. This is a small book, easy to read, much to ponder on. I will be highly recommending this book, because it has much to teach us about how misguided we can be in our journey to escape fear and feel more secure.

personally, i was more emotionally impacted by we are not free (also about japanese internment camps) but this is an incredibly well-written book, plus the last chapter was so chilling and effective.

Cold & unemotional. Vague characters with no names. Animals disposed of heartlessly. Not for me.

A very disturbing fictional account of the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War. They endured such abuse. It is hard to fathom how this was considered acceptable by the American government or the people. The family described had been happy and prosperous until the father was suddenly taken away while still in his slippers and bathrobe. Then his family was sent to an internment camp in the Utah desert, where conditions were appalling. They were there for over three years. At the end of the war they were released with a train ticket home and $25. Shameful.