When the Emperor Was Divine Essay

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 . he 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 culture and how they are trying to assimilate to American culture

Not only are the Japanese American involved in the story are torn apart politically but religiously as well for example on page 8 when the mom made sure that the picture of Jesus on top in the least you could say that the mom was influence heavily on western culture as opposed to their home religion Shinto(the native religion of Japan that primarily give the emperor divine right).

Another example that I think information to my idea is when on pg 52 when the boy was practing his native religion like when he tired to say the emperor name in front of the guard I think this page says that he still believes in his native religion and he would even take the chance to confide in his religion when they clearly told him not to .

Lastly they are torn by the thing that makes the most of us is our culture for example on pg 28 when the girl lost a sense of her native Japanese culture when she was trying to talk to the man in English but he only knew Japanese I see this short stanza as a occurrence of two cultures and how they get by.