Analysis Of Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

“When the Emperor was Divine” is an exceptional book. It is a historical novel: powerful, deep and human. The author of the book, Julie Otsuka, takes a reader on a richly detailed tour through landscape of this historical narrative. And she is a superb guide: lucid, erudite, and witty. She touches several themes and issues such as injustice, racism, and integration. Injustice and racism are represented at least some significant part of the book. These issues have been tied up with Japanese cultural values throughout the novel. All of these issues are woven together in an elegant narrative which narrators constantly change. Once it is the girl, then in the longest chapter of the book it is the boy later both together and at the end father.