Use Of A Tortoise In Julie Otsuka's When The Emperor Was Divine

In Julie Otsuka’s novel, When the Emperor was Divine, the boy’s emotions are embodied through animals. In mid 1942, the boy and his family are displaced from their home in Berkeley, CA, and relocated to an internment camp. The family is forcibly imprisoned in response to Executive Order 9066, due to their Japanese heritage. The boy’s initial hope and innocence are expressed through a tortoise. The disappearance of these virtues become evident through the animal’s demise. Additionally, images of wild horses display the boy’s desire for freedom and an identity, while their death illustrates his inability to aspire to such things. A tortoise and horses manifest the boy’s internal struggles with his internment. The life and death of the creatures

exemplify the camp’s detrimental effects on the boy’s aspirations and character.

The image of a tortoise conveys the boy’s endeavours to live and maintain hope of homecoming. Early in the family’s internment, the boy traps a tortoise in a box. Additionally, he inscribes his family’s identification number on its shell. As the boy sleeps, he fixates on the turtle’s claws against the side of the box, which indicate the boy’s intentions to leave the camp. “...in his dreams, he could hear its claws scrabbling against the side of the box” (60). It is apparent through the tortoise’s entrapment and identification number that it is a symbol of the boy’s captivity. Much like the boy’s hope to abscond from the camp and continue his life, the tortoise strives to escape the box. Despite being displaced by his own government, the boy maintains a desire to live his life, and one day, return to his home. Later

in the boy’s internment, the tortoise dies. As he observes his sister digging the turtle’s grave she declares, “We’ll dig him up in the spring… We’ll resurrect him” (82). The sister’s effort to preserve the boy’s innocence, and protect him from the his grim future convey the hopelessness of his situation. The boy cannot be sheltered from the toll that the internment camp takes on the family, and the unjust means by which they are held prisoner. Moreover, the tortoise’s death symbolizes that the boy is losing his will to go on, and is unable to remain optimistic about leaving the camp. His subconscious determination go on with his life begins to subside as his internment continues, and his home seems increasingly distant. Through the death of a tortoise, the boy’s loss of naivete and lack of hope for the future are demonstrated.

Horses represent the boy’s loss of identity, as well as his lack of freedom.

During the train ride to the internment camp, the boy marvels at wild mustangs through the window. He perceives the dust that they leave behind as proof of their individuality, a privilege that his captivity denies him. He notices, “...wherever they went they left behind great billowing clouds of dust as proof of their passage” (45). The boy’s fixation on the dust represent his longing for an identity. His internment strips him of any kind of individuality, and reduces him to a number. Similarly to the way the horses leave proof of themselves, the boy covets the ability to be significant and recognized as a unique human being. Not only do the horses symbolize the boy’s desire for an identity, but they also illustrate his craving for freedom. This is evident as, “He watched the horses as they galloped toward the mountains and he said, very softly, “They are going away” (46). As the boy watches the horses, he envies their ability to come and go as they please. He comprehends that he has no jurisdiction over his situation, and posses hope that he will one day achieve freedom, in the same way as the horses. Midway through the family’s internment, the boy converses with his mother, and inquires where the horse meat served at the canteen is from. She responds, “most of the horsemeat come from wild horses. They round them up in the desert” (89). The horsemeat manifests the boy’s loss of longing for an

identity and deficiency of a desire for freedom. The effects of the family’s captivity generate emotional turmoil for the boy. With his sister’s absence, his father’s arrest, and his mother’s depression, he is exposed to more than he is accustomed to cope with. He no longer has the mental brawn to prioritize liberation and individuality. The independence and originality that the wild horses once represent become out of the boy’s reach as circumstances become unbearable.

The toll that imprisonment takes on the boy and the alterations it has on his disposition are evident through images of animals. The emotional devastation that internment causes him represents that of many Japanese American children who suffered similar circumstances. The Executive Order 9066 relocated 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast to an internment camp. During World War II, Racism and paranoia that the Japanese American community planned to sabotage America’s war effort caused irreparable mental and physical damage to innocent Japanese families. It is crucial to recognize America’s mistake, which was apologized for in 1988, and the consequences suffered by the interned. From the blot that Japanese internment left on American history, it is evident that the imprisonment of a racial group to due generalizations and racism should never be repeated. However, because of the current war on terror, specifically regarding ISIS, and alternate Islamic extremist groups, people have become increasingly wary of Muslims in general. It is more important than ever that the world reflects on the mistakes made in 1942, and prevent a similar situation in the future.