Preview

Analysis Of When The Emperor Was Divine

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
340 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Analysis Of When The Emperor Was Divine
Samuel Akande
7/86/2011

when the emperor was divine

The Japanese Americans In the novel find themselves torn between two identities: they struggle to reconcile their divided loyalties whether it’s politics, religion, or culture. In the book when the emperor was divine it gave us some connections about what Japanese Americans views on the war politically on pg 75 the mom started destroying objects that you can say are an influence of Japanese culture and politics for example “she burned the record of Japanese opera . she ripped up the flag of the red rising flag” “and she smashed the portrait if the boy’s uncle who had once been a general in the emperors army” this details say a lot I think that it is a rejection of Japanese
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Out Of This Furnace Summary
    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page

    Out Of This Furnace Summary

    In conclusion In, America is in the Heart, Carlos Bulosan, In, Desert Exile, by Yoshiko Uchida and Out of this Furnace, Thomas Bell, the authors argue that the experiences of the ethnic groups Philippines, Slovaks and Japanese Americans are characterized by discrimination, political legislation /laws. America is in the Heart is the story of how legislation in the 1900 banning of Japanese Labor, 1905 restrictions on labor, Executive Order 9066 authorized the internment of Japanese’s American citizens. The house of representative idea 1900 Japanese labor in Hawaii, 1905 Korea bars citizens from leaving, Violence against immigration…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    John W. Dower's War Without Mercy
    • 1781 Words
    • 8 Pages

    John W. Dower's War Without Mercy

    It is seen clearly in the book that both sides were so much alike, and then critiqued for the same things. This hypocritical aspect is what led to the war but the Americans, like the Japanese were too preoccupied with winning that they could not focus on the wrongdoings they each were committing. For example, in America Frank Capra was asked to prepare a series of orientation films or American troops to watch. The “simple working motto that decisively shaped the style and texture of the films: Let the enemy prove to our soldiers the enormity of his cause-and the justness of ours.” (16) While simultaneously the Japanese soldiers were given a booklet titled: “Read This and the War is Won.” It’s purpose- was to spiritually mobile the Japanese for a protracted conflict and inspire them to take up and “shield and spear” to destroy evil, bring about justice, and protect the country’s “shining history” of 2,600 years. Another similarity in their propaganda methods was of course under-mining of each another. The image of the Japanese superhuman depicts an American soldier being the hero and has a comment on the top where a women is reading to her child that says “And so brave Jack defied the Giant Ogre…” (188) In “people of the Southern Region” a photo signifies “many of the ways the Japanese…

    • 1781 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Emperor Was Divine Thesis
    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Emperor Was Divine Thesis

    Though one wouldn’t think it, Germany wasn’t the only country guilty of having targeted an entire race of people. Though definitely not as extreme as Germany’s actions, the US was also guilty of this act, having targeted the Japanese American people after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor. Arresting potential ‘spies,’ forcing people to move, and putting them all in camps were the main things the US had done to the Japanese people. In the book When the Emperor Was Divine written by Julie Otsuka, this event is shown through the eyes of the Japanese people as they go through this. Though many themes are most likely prevalent in the story, the one that sticks out the most is that an entire races fate should not be determined by one event.…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When the Emperor Was Devine [Theme]
    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When the Emperor Was Devine [Theme]

    The theme of disappearance in When the Emperor Was Divine encompasses both the obvious, such as their dog, and their father, and more complicated, subtle themes, such as the sense of community that they had with their neighborhood, and their worth as human beings as judged by other people. Their father as they knew him before his arrest was forever removed from their lives, due to whatever he suffered during his detainment. He was eventually released, and so, he was not removed from their lives entirely, but he was entirely changed, coming back a different person than he was when he was forced to leave his family. The most simple of the disappearances that are witnessed in the novel were the loss of the family’s pets. The mother had to kill their dog, release their bird, and give away the family cat, effectively permanently removing all of them from their lives. The loss of their dignity was a more subtle and complex disappearance, though just as prominent, and even more important. The way that they are treated before the war, and being taken to the camp, and the way they were treated by their community after returning are entirely different. Upon returning, they are either ignored entirely, or treated with hostility. Before having gone, there was a sense of community, and the mother had at least one close relationship with others in the community, in the form of the shopkeeper. Unfortunately, said relationship was one of the many that were changed or broken, due to the signified disappearance of their worth as American citizens, and as…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    When The Emperor Was Divine Analysis
    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When The Emperor Was Divine Analysis

    Families like the one in the book who can call multiple countries home often have trouble identifying which side to support during war. One instance of this is when the boy is told never to mention the emperor's name, “But sometimes it slipped out anyway. Hirohito, Hirohito, Hirohito. He said it quietly. Quickly. He whispered it.”(41). The boy is very conflicted because growing up he was raised with Japanese influences, but as he transitions into the camp he is told to show no allegiance to Japan. The American Government forbids the Japanese-Americans from saying the emperors name in order to shun him. By tarnishing the emperor's image in the US, the government essentially strips the emperor of his divine status. One other instance is when army recruiters arrived at the camp. They gave everyone over the age of 17 a loyalty questionnaire. When the mother is filling her questionnaire out she runs into a question asking her to denounce any loyalties she has with Japan, “She did not want to be sent back to Japan. “There’s no future for us there. We’re here. Your father’s here. The most important thing is that we stay together.”(70). Even though the mother wants to return to Japan she knows she must stay in America. In America her children have more opportunities to succeed and thrive. Having a good environment for her children to grow up in is more important to the mother than choosing a side to…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    War Without Mercy Summary
    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages

    War Without Mercy Summary

    The concept of bushido, and honor was deeply engrained in Japanese culture. Not only were soldiers expected to fight to the death and to never surrender to the enemy, they also dehumanized their opponents. The Imperial Japanese Army had since the United States had entered the war, began propagandizing the enemies they faced. The book War without Mercy gives various examples of how the Japanese public saw and exemplified the United States. The book takes note of one article referred to as “The Bestial American People”. The article refers to the “real meaning of American individualism … in fact, the Americans desired to destroy ‘the divine state of Japan’ simply to gratify their insatiable carnal desires” (Dower 1986, 243). In addition the article the book mentions also portrays Americans as sadists, killing newborns via drowning and torturing Japanese prisoners of war in manners inhumane and cruel. Specifically, the article mentions that American soldiers tortured Japanese soldiers that was characterized as “only beasts and barbarians could do such things… certainly, humans could not” (Dower 1986, 243). The Japanese public and the Imperial army would find justification in the fight against the United States, believing they were combating a nation that was threatened their way of life. The total war mentality and the ideologies the public undertook made it difficult for the United States for the majority of the war to force Japan to surrender. As the United States captured more and more territory from Japan bringing them closer to a possible land invasion, it seemed that Japan was still fighting to the bitter…

    • 1817 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    When The Emperor Meaning
    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages

    When The Emperor Meaning

    When the Emperor was DIvine is a title that has a very strong meaning to it. With this meaning also comes great significance. The title When the Emperor was DIvine is written in past tense because it uses the word when. This is a very small but a very important detail. It is saying that the Emperor is not divine anymore. Divine is a word used to describe somebody as a God. By losing his divinity the Emperor, in the eyes of Americans had lost all of his power. This correlates to what had happened to all of the Japanese in America. They to had also lost all of their power. They were not treated as equals anymore. They were put into internment camps and had no voice or power to do anything against it. When America made the Emperor announced that…

    • 1590 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Why Were Japanese Americans Intermed
    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Why Were Japanese Americans Intermed

    World War II was a tragic international incident. Among those involved included the red, white, and blue eagle herself, America. During the events of World War II, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor of the United States. The U.S.’s retorted back with two atomic bombs and a plan to exclude people, including citizens, of Japanese ancestry in the States. The country that boasts freedom and is in some eyes, the embodiment of freedom, decided to segregate Japanese-Americans to concentration camps, away from their homes and work on the West Coast. They fear that the Japanese-Americans would side with Japan or work with them, resulting in their removal. The governmental enforcement of the migration of persons of Japanese ancestry is unconstitutional and unjust.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Incarceration Of Japanese Ancestry In Okada
    • 158 Words
    • 1 Page

    The Incarceration Of Japanese Ancestry In Okada

    The indiscriminate round-up of people of Japanese ancestry demonstrated the dominant (white) American culture’s ability, through racial stereotyping, to strip minority groups of their individual identity. Throughout the preface of the novel, Okada uses the terms “Japanese-American,” “American-Japanese,” and “Japanese-Japanese” to emphasize how all people from a Japanese background were heaped together by the American government. Consequently, people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly evicted from the West Coast and moved to what were euphemistically called “relocation centers.” Okada demonstrates an awareness of how misrepresentation by the government by the use of sanitized terminology subverted the realities of incarceration. In his preface…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Oppositions And Reconciliation In John Okada's No-No Boy
    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Oppositions And Reconciliation In John Okada's No-No Boy

    This review analyzes Stan Yogi’s “’You Had to Be One or the Other’: Oppositions and Reconciliation in John Okada’s No-No Boy,” agreeing with the main points and proposing additional suggestions to the argument’s claim. Yogi centers his analysis on Ichiro Yamada, a twenty-five-year-old Nisei who struggles to accept his wartime actions (63). Yogi strongly argues that John Okada eradicates the term “model minority”, or the overcoming of racial and cultural barriers that defines the Japanese-American community, by exemplifying the internal conflicts behind this praise. Moreover, Yogi analyzes the visible opposition to a “Japanese-American” identity and the embracement of “mutually exclusive” Japanese and American identities that John Okada presents (63-64). Conversely, according to Yogi, Okada explores the polarizing hostility between individuals and the community. Yogi concludes that healing is possible within both the Nikkei community and America (74). While the article provides a partially…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Bergman Homework
    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Bergman Homework

    The young white Americans are struggling with the question of what it actually means to be young, white, and American. He also sees young white kids in crisis of their identity.…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    joy luck club
    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages

    joy luck club

    The first and most important conflict in the novel is heritage. Both mothers, Suyuan and Lindo, come from a Chinese background and try to instill their knowledge and strengths into their children. However, their children are being raised in America with new ideals and a powerful…

    • 2663 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Asian American Analysis
    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Asian American Analysis

    Asian American Literature captures the voices of people who are often alienated and shares the experiences of people who are often ignored. APIA authors intend to correct stereotypes and show that they are also part of the giant melting pot that is…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Report on the Movie 'Joy Luck Club'
    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Report on the Movie 'Joy Luck Club'

    One of the major ICC themes in the movie is the conflict between individualism and collectivism. Although not explicitly expressed, it has a strong impact on the whole course of the movie. The 4 immigrant Chinese mothers, having spent their childhood in Mainland China, embodied a strong collectivistic value. This is a dominant value in Asian culture, especially that of China. In such society, the priority of a group far exceeds that of an individual, and group-oriented interdependence is greatly emphasized. The negative experiences in China have, to a large extent, shaped the mindset of the 4 mothers. This is not the case for their daughters, who were born and raised in America, and embeded with the American values. They see themselves as independent individuals and their outlooks on lives greatly reflect the individualistic nature of their generation. This gave rise to a series of conflicts between them and their mothers.…

    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis of Plight of the Little Emperors
    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis of Plight of the Little Emperors

    “Plight of the Little Emperors” was a very interesting book about youth in China and there expectations. Chinese parents push there kids as hard as they can to make sure they succeed in life. Some of these kids are pushed to know where and left in the cold. In this article, it explains one of the biggest social problems in China today. The three main topics in “Plight of the Little Emperors” are parent pressure in kids’ academics, college graduates and the lack of jobs, and how to escape the harsh world.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics