When the Emperor Was Divine: Chapter 3 Questions

1. What is the significance of this chapter’s title? The significance of this title is that the Japanese-Americans in internment are no longer allowed to worship the Emperor, so they recall on when “the emperor was divine”.
2. Why does the boy keep thinking that he sees his father? The boy keeps thinking that because all of the men look so much alike.
3. When the boy thinks, “For it was true, they all looked alike,” [p. 49] he seems to be echoing something he has heard elsewhere. Where might he have heard this? He might have heard this at school, or on the street from other people who think that all Japanese-Americans and people look alike.
4. What is the significance of the things the boy hears through the walls of his barracks? Sayonara is, of course, Japanese, but what language is Auf wiederseh’n, and what is the irony of hearing it in this setting? The significance of these things the boy hears is that people are trying to conform, and not say their native tongue. The irony of hearing German in this setting is that it is a reflection of the Holocaust.
5. Why does the boy’s mother warn him never to say the Emperor’s name out loud? Why does he later say it to himself, and why does he dream about the Emperor’s ships? The boy’s mother warns him never to say the Emperor’s name out loud because the American government believes that if you even say the Emperors name that means that you are loyal to him and not the United States. He later says it to himself because he does not truly understand, and he dreams of the Emperor’s ships as a way of rebelling against the authorities, because he is after all only a young boy.
6. In what different ways do the three characters spend their time in camp? How does this reflect their characters? The girl begins to make friends and go out to play and try to pretend like this is a normal life, the boy becomes more introverted, while the mother got lost in her work and became stern as a way of coping with the changes.
7. What is Mrs. Kato’s predicament, and how might it symbolize the common condition of the internees? Mrs. Kato can’t really realize what is going on, and sometimes thinks that she’s at home, this symbolizes the awful conditions of the internees.
8. How reliable is the information the girl gives her brother? Where else have we seen her make authoritative-sounding statements that may not necessarily be accurate? The information the girl gives her brother isn’t very reliable, she has also made statements like that when he asked her about what happened to the photographer taking a picture of that stampede.
9. The letters the father sends the boy have been censored by an official. What things does the boy leave out of his letters back? Why might he do this? The boy leaves out things about the condition of the camp and what he is doing there. He might do this so that his letters will not be censored.
10. What sort of things does the boy remember about his father, and what do they reveal about him? The boy remembers how his father left the house in a bathrobe and no shoes, and how his father would call him “puppy”, this reveals that he is concerned about his father’s appearance.
11. Why does the mother fear that her husband may no longer recognize her? The mother fears that because of all the sun she has gotten and that her worries of being in this camp have made her look older.
12. When the boy asks his sister what time it is, what is the irony of her answer? Where else in the book do characters lose track of time? The irony of her answer is that she always says the same time – six o’clock. The mother also loses track of time along with the old woman who talks about rice and not putting it on in time.
13. What happens to the inmates who sign up to harvest crops? The inmates who sign up to harvest crops either come back with money that they made and with new shoes or came back more broken than when they left.
14. What is the significance of the boy’s dream about doors? Where are Peleliu and Saipan? What are the claws the boy hears scrabbling, and why might their sound be growing fainter? The significance about the boys dream is that he wants to leave this camp, Peleliu and Saipan are in Japan. The claws the boy hears scrabbling is the tortoise.
15. What detail of the father’s arrest does the boy find most troubling? What eventually makes him feel better? The fact that the boy’s father left without shoes troubles him the most, but the fact that another boy’s father left in socks makes him feel better later.
16. What is the significance of the objects the boy’s mother destroyed? The significance is that she is trying to destroy her Japanese heritage.
17. What does the father mean by, “It’s better to bend than to break?” [p. 78] Compare this to the mother thinking, “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” [p. 99] How useful or relevant does this advice seem in the context of the novel? What does it suggest about these people’s characters and values? Do they actually abide by these sayings? His father means that sometimes you have to go along with what is going on, and his mother means that when you stand out in a majority you always end up being punished for it. Hence all the Japanese-Americans in internment camps, so it is better just to forget your Japanese heritage and act like all the other Americans. They do abide by these sayings to a certain extent.
18. Why does the girl make the boy turn away while she undresses? In what other ways does her behavior change during this time? The girl makes the boy turn away because she is beginning to feel like a girl, she also starts spending more time away from her family and smoking cigarettes.
19. Why does the boy feel responsible for the tortoise’s death? Do you think he is? His sister says, “We’ll resurrect him,” but is she just joking? Does the boy believe her? The boy feels responsible because he didn’t feed it, to an extent he is. She is joking when he says that they’re resurrect him, and he believes her.
20. The boy is particularly bothered because his father didn’t look back at him from the car in which the FBI men took him away. What significance do you think he places on this? What alternative reason might the father have had for not turning? He places the significance of this as his father not caring, he might have actually not turned because he was ashamed of being taken in.
21. How does the mother change in the course of her internment? What memory seems especially affecting to her? The mother changes by being more introverted and staying in the house and never going out.
22. Why is the family in the next barracks sent to Tule Lake? What is the irony of punishing people imprisoned as enemy aliens for refusing to pledge allegiance to the nation that’s imprisoned them? Because they were seen as traitors. The irony of punishing people for not saying the pledge is that they are making these people suffer for being different and yet want them to be completely loyal to a government that is punishing them.
23. What is it that the boy sees blooming inside a peach tin? How is this connected to his vision of the tortoise? Do you think this vision is real or a fantasy? A tulip is blooming inside the peach tin, because he thinks about seeing the tortoise resurrected. This vision is a fantasy because the tortoise is dead.
24. Why is one of the inmates shot? What hypotheses are given for his seemingly reckless behavior? One of the inmates is shot for running, they think he went stir crazy.
25. On page 104 the boy imagines his father returning by various means (horse, bike, train), and dressed in various outfits (a blue pinstriped suit, a red kimono). What is the significance of these different guises? What, in particular, is the meaning of the pearl? The significance of these different guises is the different sides of his father and all his different memories. The meaning of the pearl is that the mother lost her earring on the train, and him finding it kind of closes the circle of internment.

Document Analysis: Exective Order 9066

1. What was the reasoning used to justify the issuance of Executive Order No. 9066? The reasoning was that there were threats of espionage, therefore to keep the country safe they issued this order.
2. Under what authority did President Roosevelt issue Executive Order No. 9066? Under the authority of being President of the United States and “Commander in Chief of the Army” President Roosevelt issues this order.
3. To whom did President Roosevelt designate authority to carry out the evacuation? President Roosevelt designates the Secretary of War and Military Commander to carry out the evacuation.
4. Give specific examples of the powers authorized by the President to be used in carrying out the Order. The President authorized powers to move people from certain regions in to “housing” and to enforce restrictions as they see fit, also helping with “medical aid, housing, food, clothing, transportation, use of land, shelter, and other supplies, equipment, utilities, facilities and services.”

Political Cartoon Analysis

1. What do you see in the cartoon? Make a list. Include objects, people, and any characteristics that seem to be exaggerated. In cartoon one the “Honorable 5^th Column” handing out TNT with people coming from Washington, Oregon, and California. In the second cartoon there is a bandwagon of “California Born Japanese Citizens” going out of “harms way” in to a military zone.
2. Which of the items on the list from Question 1 are symbols? What does each symbol stand for? TNT is a symbol that represents that these actions will set off a list of consequences that they will have to deal with later as a result of this. The Military zone represents moving innocent people in to a place where they do not deserve to be.
3. What is happening in the cartoon? In cartoon one the “honorable 5^th column” is handing out TNT to citizens of Washington, Oregon, and California. In cartoon two the military is taking Japanese-Americans in to a military zone to take them out of “harm’s way”.
4. What is the cartoonist's message? In cartoon one the message is that the government is not doing things for the honest reasons, and as a result is making many rightful citizens hateful against the government for their poor treatment. In cartoon two the message is that it is ridiculous that these people are taken in to a military zone when they are honest American citizens.
5. Do you agree or disagree with the message? Explain your answer. I agree with this message because these people were in no way a threat to society and what the government did was wrong.

When the Emporer Was Divine Chapters 1 & 2 Questions

Chapter 1

1. Whose point of view dominates this chapter? The woman’s
2. What does the woman see in the window? Otsuka tells us that “she wrote down a few words.” [p. 3] What do they turn out to be? The woman sees a poster in the window; the few words turn out to be the list of things she can bring to the internment camp.
3. How much time passes between the appearance of the notice and the events of the rest of the chapter? What do we learn has happened during that time? A few days pass between the appearance of the notice and the rest of the events. We learn that she has packed all the things in her house away, locking and hiding some things, she lets the bird free and kills her dog.
4. What items does the woman buy at the hardware store? What does she intend to do with them? Why might Mr. Lundy keep insisting that she can pay him later, and why is she in turn so determined to pay him now? The woman buys twine, and two rolls of tape, she tapes the boxes with the tape and ties up her dog with the twine. Mr. Lundy might keep insisting that she can pay him later because he knew she was going in to an internment camp.
5. Which of the family possessions do the woman and her children pack; which things do they leave behind? What do their choices tell you about them? Discuss the significance of the bonsai tree, the reproduction of “The Gleaners,” and the portrait of Princess Elizabeth. The family possessions that the woman and children pack are not much, only some clothes and a picture, the boys baseball glove. It shows that they are not very attached to the past. The bonsai tree shows that they are going to try to let go of their Japanese roots, and the reproduction of the Gleaners shows she is tired of submissiveness but follows the rules anyway.
6. Otsuka describes the woman as someone “who did not always follow the rules.” Where in this novel do we see her doing this? In the novel we see the woman following the rules when it comes to packing and in the internment camp.
7. Why does the woman kill White Dog? How does she explain its disappearance to the children? Do they believe her? Where else do we see her lying to the? The woman kills White Dog because they could not take him with them. She does not really say anything about his disappearance except affirming that the dog is old and cannot hear well. They believe her. She also lies to the children about where they are going and such.
8. Why is the boy so insistent on keeping his hat on? The boy is so insistent on keeping his hat on because it is a present from his father and its all that he has.
9. The girl worries about her looks, noting that “people were staring.” [p. 15] What might be the real reason they were staring at her? The real reason might be because she is of Japanese descent.
10. Why does the girl ask her mother to make her practice for her piano lesson, and why, when her mother refuses, does she practice anyway? The girl asks her mother to make her practice for her piano lesson so that she could have some authority, but practices anyway to keep normalcy.
11. At what point in the evening’s routines does the woman begin to cry? What is the significance of “La donna é mobile,” a song whose title means “Woman Is Fickle”? The woman begins to cry when she sits down after freeing the bird to drink, she relates to the song “La donna e mobile”.
12. Discuss the significance of the chapter’s final sentence: “Then they would pin their identification numbers to their collars and grab their suitcases and climb up onto the bus and go to wherever it was they had to go.” [p. 22] Why is the author vague about their destination. The author is so vague about their destination because the people who were headed to internment camps did not know where they were going, and went blindly in to the desert.

Chapter 2

1. Whose point of view dominates this chapter? What clues does the author use to indicate this shift? The girl’s point of view dominates this chapter; the author begins to describe the girl to indicate this shift.
2. How much time has passed since the family left its home and what has happened in the interim? A day has passed since the family has left their home, and they had ridden on the bus, experiencing people’s stares and the soliders.
3. Why have the girl’s shoes gone unpolished since spring? Because she has not had the time.
4. What sights draw her attention as she gazes out the train window? She sees people coming home from church, a couple riding bikes, along with a dried up lake.
5. Why does the soldier tell her to pull her shades down? The soldier tells her that so that people in towns could not see the passengers on the train and would no throw things.
6. What might account for the boy’s newfound interest in horses? How do the grownups around him treat this interest? What about their responses might be confusing to him? The boy had a new interest in horses because of his time at a horse stable, the grownups tell him to grow up to be a big strong “American” boy. Their responses may be confusing to him because he already thinks he is an American.
7. When the girl asks Ted Ishimoto if he is a rich man, he says “Not anymore.” [p. 33] What might account for his answer? The fact that he is on that train and had to give up his money may account for his answer.
8. Do you think the girl’s story about her father is true? Why or why not, and if it isn’t true what might be her reason for telling it? Why does she later tell Ted that her father never writes to her? I think the story about her father is true because of how international his affairs were to make him seem threatening. She may tell Ted that her father never writes to her to make him feel sorry for her.
9. What is striking about the boy saying that he forgot his umbrella? Is he telling a deliberate untruth or is he forgetting what actually happened? At what other points in the book do the characters suffer lapses of memory or remember events falsely? It is striking that the boy actually chooses not to bring along the umbrella, we have not read far enough yet in the book to recall more moments in which people cannot remember ask me later.
10. Why might the boy draw his father inside a square? Because he is in jail.
11. What is Tanforan and what happened there? In what different ways do different characters remember it? Tanforan is a horse stable, the boy and girl worked there and the boy realized he wanted to be a jockey there. The boy remembers it more fondly than the girl.
12. During the night the train crosses the Great Salt Lake. Given that the girl is asleep at the time, who is observing this crossing? And what might this narrator mean by “the sound of the lake was inside her” [pp. 46-7]? The woman is observing this crossing, and the quote may mean that since they are moving to the desert she needs to remember the sound of water to survive.

Bernice Bobs Her Hair Questions

1. How does F. Scott Fitzgerald portray wealthy people in his work? He portrays wealthy people as carefree people who live with no abandon and no consideration for money and very cultured. For example, going to parties, on drives, and rowing.
2. Discuss how a “modern girl” is described in this story. A modern girl is described as one who goes to parties, dates many boys at once, and does all shocking things. For example, Marjorie did cartwheels at a party and Bernice bobs her hair.
3. What is a flapper? A young risqué woman, who dates casually, bobs her hair, wears short dresses, tight caps, and rejects many social standards for women.
4. Why does Bernice “bob” her hair? She bobs her hair to prove Marjorie wrong and to shock people.
5. Compare and contrast the difficulties faced by youths searching for their social identities in the 1920s as opposed to the struggle faced by young people today. In the 1920s women were just beginning to have rights, so their exploring new feelings and customs were very hard for them, along with men because their fathers before them had been raised in conformity. When new thinking came around it gave them a chance to open their horizons, something that was looked down upon. Today it is hard but in another way, teens today explore things like drugs and violence, something very different from bobbing their hair and wearing short skirts. Yet in the 1920s those who truly searched outside the box for their identities pioneered the way for young people of the future to do that.
6. Was Bernice justified in her final act against Marjorie? No she was not, because Bernice had a choice whether or not to cut her hair and decided to; yes Marjorie egged her on but in no way did she force her to.
7. Explain how Bernice’s character has transformed by the end of the story. Bernice has transformed in to a “modern girl” but has become spiteful.

Business of the 1920s Questions

1. How did the automobile change American life? The Automobile changed American life by altering landscapes with paved roads and making houses equipped with garages or carports and a driveway. It also made gasoline a part of the everyday life, so gas stations along with repair shops and traffic lights began to spring up. It also made it possible for people in rural parts of cities to travel to other parts of the town to shop, and for workers to live outside of the city and to commute.

2. What advances were made in the airplane industry during the postwar years? The advances made in the airplane industry during the postwar years were navigational systems, radios, and safer flights. Which meant that commercial flights were becoming more popular.

3. What role did credit play in the American economy in the 1920's? Credit in the 1920s made many people go in to debt. People bought appliances and goods without thinking about whether or not they had the money, using the “installment plan” as a means to have whatever they wanted. Thus, many consumers went in to debt.

4. What role did mass advertising play in the American economy in the 1920's? Mass advertising meant that people became more familiar with brand names, along with advertising that made other products better than others. Companies hired psychologists to help with appeal marketing, along with slogans to stick in the minds of consumers.

5. Why did some businesses not do well in the 1920's?

6. Why did American farmers suffer during the 1920's? Farmers suffered because they had borrowed money to buy land along with machinery, the main reason was so that they could do their part in World War I and grows more crops. Yet they could not pay back their loans so they lost their land, equipment, and income.

7. How did the installment plan fuel a superficial prosperity? By making it appear that people had enough money to buy a product when they really did not.

8. How did changes in technology in the 1920's influence American life? Changes in technology made it so that housewives could spend more time doing community activities and spending time with her family than cleaning and doing other housework. With the invention of the washing machine and vacuum housewives no longer had to wash clothes by hand and sweep.

9. What evidence suggests that the prosperity of the 1920s was not on a firm foundation? The evidence to suggest that was peoples carelessness for the future and only had an interest for the present.

10. Look at the cartoon below. How did the artist place blame for the Teapot Dome scandal through the use of symbolism, without actually naming the Republicans? The artist placed blame on the republicans by making the teapot look like an elephant.

Compare/Contrast Essay

In the 1940s Japanese-Americans on the west coast were forced in to internment, calling small shacks home in deserts and swampy areas for more than three years. At the same time on another continent Jews and other "rejected" people of society not seen as pure or useful to the Nazi party were put in to concentration camps in which they were given an identification number and were cruelly abused. Many think that these two situations are nothing like the other, while some think that they are very similar in experience. Japanese internment and German concentration camps were alike in the manner of being forced in to a camp because of race, preference, or religious ideals and they were in dangerous and unfavorable conditions. They were not alike because those in internment were never killed by authorities, and German concentration camps did not offer pay for the jobs the imprisoned people did.
Many Japanese-Americans read of the "relocation program" on posters and flyers taped up over their towns. These posters listed what to bring and what to leave behind; for example no pets. Travelers could bring only what they could carry, nothing more, and these rules seem to mirror those of the travelers off to concentration camps in Germany. Both parties were forced to relocate because of ethnic heritage, religious beliefs, or lifestyles. In the United States, Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate due to the war against Japan, and the fear that those of Japanese descent would interfere with the war and side with Japan instead of the United States. Thus, for their "own protections" are those in internment were told, they were relocated to deserts and swamps. Once there they were ushered in to cramped conditions where an entire family lived in one room, and they shared a bathroom with over 100 other people. In Germany, anyone seen as undesirable was put in "work camps" or concentration camps. Gypsies, Jews, homosexuals, communists, and other communities were taken to places such as Auschwitz to be worked to death or quarantined. Those off Auschwitz and other camps carried only a suitcase with their most cherished possessions. Once there, they were brutally abused by authorities, worked to death, and killed. Many in the United States and in Germany were packed on to trains for long rides, though Japanese-Americans were more comfortable riding to northern California than Auschwitz.
In concentration camps all over Germany and Poland – along with other countries, prisoners were worked to death, living in bad conditions and with even worse authorities. Those who "lived" there were assigned a number, much like in a prison system, which was then tattooed on a part of their body. They were fed very poorly, all of the prisoners were emaciated and their skin hung on their bones with no muscle. When they first arrived they were put in two groups – male and female. After that they were paired down again to desirables and undesirables; the undesirables were then exterminated. Forced to work in factories or on "farms" they went long hours without rest, and slept little through the night. If one did not work hard enough, or rested for even a moment they would be brutally punished by being shot in the head or another form of torture. Yet for most prisoners they were literally "worked to death" by their watchers since the Nazi party instated the "annihilation through work" policy. In Japanese internment the people residing there were offered jobs which could pay up to 19 dollars a month. Though having to pay for food in a cramped cafeteria, people worked as seamstresses, dishwashers, dance teachers, and other "normal" jobs in a normal eight hour work day. Unlike German camps in which prisoners were worked to death, people in internment were at least given rest and pay in an attempt for the government to mirror a normal life.
Though Japanese Internment and German Concentration camps mirror each other in many aspects, they are different. They are alike in the way that both parties were relocated due to race, and in concentration camps preference and religious belief. They are different in the cruelty that was put on them by authorities; prisoners were worked to death and killed by authorities while residents in Japanese internment camps were given pay and good hour jobs.

Journal Entry: Nazi Concentration Camp

Dear Diary,

Ever since the first day I have been having this undeniable feeling that the end is near. On the train packed in so tight you could not sit down the end seemed to echo through the bodies, alive and dead. We didn't know where we were going, and honestly most of us did not care to know. When the train stopped and we were sorted by gender, I knew I would never see my father again, nor my brother who was two years younger than myself. It seems so long ago, when mother and I were taken in to a room with other women, and our heads were shaved.
Since then it has been the same routine in this place I now know is called Auschwitz-Birkenau. We wake up every morning at dawn, and by the end of breakfast two less people from our bunks are here, and the smell of the gas chambers makes it hard to breathe. From there we are taken to our jobs, where Mother and I plant crops until sundown, with one small break. If we stop to sit or rest we are yelled at or punished, and ever since the first day when I saw someone executed by a guard's gun I have yet to even pause. By the afternoon the stench of burning flesh fills the grounds that I am sure it will never leave my skin. At sundown we are taken back to our camps to be fed if we have been good, and to die if we have been seen as "unproductive".
All of us are grouped by marks on our clothes. Mother and I wear yellow stars, while I have seen others with pink and black triangles – those I have yet to figure out the meaning. Mother coughs all the time now, though, and she has gotten so skinny that her shirt hangs from her as if it was hanging on a tree, and the Star of David seems to swallow her whole. I am wondering if we will ever make it out alive.
Lately there have been rumors running through the camp that the war is over, yet if caught speculating over the subject you are immediately taken to the chambers, or shot on site. Fear has become a stench here, something that I know will permeate me for years to come – yet now I fear the end truly is near.
I must go now, before I am caught.

Journal Entry: Japanese Internment

Fall 1942
Dear Diary,

When we first heard of being put in camps I immediately went home and began to pack. I was at the grocery store when I read the flyers saying what we could and could not bring. A week later Mother and I found ourselves on a train headed to northern California, completely unaware of what was to come.
We were ushered in to a small shack sandwiched between other shacks that leaned slightly to the sun. The nails stuck out of boards as if the people building them had stopped half way through. The tiny shack didn’t shield us from the harsh desert climate, and many times we would find sand in our food.
The water was brown, and the first few days I refused to drink it until I became so dehydrated that I was forced to. It tasted gritty with mud mixed inside it. Mother and I grew thin as we worked in the camp, being paid to sew dresses for the women in the camp, along with me going to school.
I always wondered why we were there. What we did to deserve being put like cattle in to camps. I considered myself an American, and loved the country I belonged to. But inside those camps, drinking the gritty water and peeling sunburned skin from my shoulders: I began to hate it.
My brother who lived in Minnesota had joined the army, and now fought for the country that had imprisoned his sister and mother. We would receive letters of the harshness the other soldiers would give him because of his ancestry.
The war is over now, though. I cannot wait for Mother and I to be freed from this place so we can forget it and move on.

Bye.

American Foreign Policy Question Responses

1. The purpose of the Monroe Doctrine was to end European influence in the Western Hemisphere.

2. The United States responded to the end of World War I by putting up a policy of isolationism.

3. The incident that drove the United States in to World War II was Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor.

4. The developments that led to the end of the Cold War was the cost of the war along with all the lives that had been lost.