Sacrifice's 'When The Emperor Was Divine'

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Myah G. Mundy Mrs.Vermilion Honors English 10 08 April 2024. Where has the beauty gone? Being moved from your home so abruptly as well as getting sent to a place no one wishes to be is a big change to the luscious life that the woman and her family used to live. After Pearl Harbor, life for the Japanese Americans was different. They were sent away to live in camps with harsh living conditions. Their journey through The Emperor Was Divine is very descriptive and might even make its readers think twice. In the story When The Emperor Was Divine, the author uses a motif of beauty. The author described this "beautiful life" they once had has now turned ugly due to their forced internment. In this story, the theme is a sense of change. When the …show more content…

They were no longer accepted for who they were. People were so afraid of them after Pearl Harbor that they were sent away to camps. On the way to the camp, the family traveled a long way to get there. Everyone traveled by train and the only thing to keep busy was to sleep or look out the windows at the passing scenery. The girl watched her life go by in a flash. As she stared out of the train window, she examined all sorts of things like people walking, the color of houses, and even the essence of the trees. “Two tall cottonwood trees with a hammock between them, gently swaying in the breeze. a man in a straw hat was trimming hedges. The hedges were very round. They were perfect green spheres”(Otsuka 23). The scene she views out her window explains that trees have some sort of beauty and calmness to them. The Japanese Americans in the camps were used to trees at home. There are no trees in the camps, the camps are bare and uncolored. The beautiful green trees that the Japanese Americans used to have disappeared and have taken everyone's happiness with them. The Japanese Americans finally arrive at the camps, only for their lives to get worse. After being singled out and sent

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