When the Emperor was Divine

                In the story “When the Emperor was Divine” Otsuka decides against giving the main characters of the book names. I think by doing this she intends to convey a parallel between her story and the way in which history has viewed the internment of Japanese citizens during World War Two.

                Even in my own educational experience the internment of the Japanese was something that was casually glanced over when we were studying World War Two. Looking back this was probably a clever attempt by whomever it is that creates the curriculum to cast this countries sad mistreatment of its own citizens during the war aside in the hopes that no one would remember that it ever happened. Ironically this is what the Nazis were doing towards the end of the war when their defeat was imminent. They desperately tried to cover up all evidence of the Holocaust because they knew deep down that they had committed an awful act and they did not want to be held responsible.

                Likewise, the United States does not want people to be bringing up similarities between their treatment of the Japanese and the Nazi treatment of the Jews. Unfortunately, much like the Nazis found out the United States will not be able to outrun its past no matter how hard it tries in the history books to pretend that it was a minor event or that it never happened at all.

                 Otsuka does not name her characters because they were ignored by the rest of society. It is why in the very beginning of the story she gives the name of the presumably white American hardware man and not the Japanese woman who comes in to make a purchase. Society at that time would not ignore the mass internment of people who were deemed to matter like the hardware man like they did the internment of the Japanese.