When The Emperor Was Divine

The critically acclaimed novel about the Japanese-American experience during the Second World War.

It is four months after Pearl Harbour and overnight signs appear all over the United States instructing Japanese Americans to report to internment camps for the duration of the war. For one family, it proves to be a nightmare of oppression and alienation.

Explored from varying points of view - the mother receiving the order to evacuate; the daughter on the long train journey; the son in the desert encampment; the family's return home; and the bitter release of their father after four years in captivity - it tells of an incarceration that will alter their lives forever.

Based on a true story, Julie Otsuka's powerful, deeply humane novel tells of an unjustly forgotten episode in America's wartime history. When the Emperor Was Divine is a poignant reminder of a past not to be repeated.