When the Emperor Was Divine is a powerful book that portrays the internment of those of Japanese ancestry after the bombing of Pearl Harbor during World War II and is told from the perspective and point of view of the father who is taken from their Berkley, California home by the FBI and imprisoned in New Mexico for the duration of the war. We also get the points of view of the mother, the 11-year old girl and the 8-year old boy as they are transported to an internment camp in a desert in Utah and the subsequent years spent there. Otsuka's simple spare prose adds to the power and tragedy of this shameful period of time in our history.

☆☆☆½

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