In When the Emperor was Divine Julie Otsuka tells the story of a Japanese American family during World War Two. The father was arrested early on during the war, and the book starts when mother and the two children, a boy and a girl, are about to be sent to the internment camp.
The (nameless) woman runs her errands, and when she comes home she rehomes the cat, kills the elderly dog, and packs her own and her son’s suitcase. Her daughter’s room has a sign that says she’s not allowed to enter so she is instructed later to pack her things.
This is a very short book, but it is powerful and partly based on the author’s own experience in the internment camp in Topaz, Utah.
Read for The 52 Book Club Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 50: Set in the 1940s
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
