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.