The Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. The camps were heavily guarded by armed soldiers, enclosed by a barb wire, and located in the middle of a desert. However, most of the Japanese living in the camps or sent to prison were completely innocent and were blamed by association. The family in When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka illustrated how injustice can change people for good or for bad. The internment camps had a huge effect on the sister changing her into a negative person. In the beginning of the book, the sister was an excellent student who obeyed her mother’s request.They were running their daily routine on the day before they had to move. However, when she returned home from school she realized,…show more content… The brother had described his father as “a small handsome man with delicate hands” and how “his father would look up and smile and put down whatever he was doing” (62). This showed us how before he was a loving man full of energy and dedicated to his children. However, in “Confession” we learned about what happened in the interrogation room when he was arrested. In that chapter, there was an example of hyperbole which demonstrated how the father confessed to being everything. For example, the father told the government that “I’m your florist. I’m your grocer. I’m your waiter. I’m the Buddhist priest. I’m the Shinto priest. I’m the one you call Jap” (142). By using hyperbole, it showed how absurd the accusations towards the father was, since he couldn’t have committed everything. But, the father was put in prison for reasons unknown to the children; and, after he came back the father wasn’t the same. The father who came back from prison was broken apart. For instance, a little thing could send him into a rage such as waiting on line. He was also paranoid thinking that people were listening on the telephone and he warned the children how anyone could have been an
