Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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When When the Emperor was Divine was just Ok

When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka

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This is one of the okayest books I have ever read. That sounds mean maybe, and I am not trying be, but that’s what it is. At the end, I was like, yes ok, I read that. That book. The one I read. The story is about Japanese Internment, with especial focus on the order, the disappearance of a father, the children affected, and the accompanying racist milieu in the country at large. This is obviously a relevant topic today for plenty of reasons. We […]

A Shameful Reminder

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Before the war, they had names. Identities. They had neighbors, friends, teachers, classmates.  But as soon as Japan rained bombs down on Pearl Harbor, everything about these people was stripped away. Only their ethnicity remained. Japanese. Traitor. Other. Nameless, they were crowded onto trains, clutching their suitcases, trying to convince themselves they’d be home again soon. They were on their best behavior in the camps, trying to convince the guards they were “good Americans.” And they waited. Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor was Divine follows […]

Our Shame and Dishonor

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Sometimes things disappear and there’s no getting them back. This first novel from Julie Otsuka deals with the period of time that follows her second novel. The Buddha in the Attic told the story of the Japanese American experience from arrival in California at the turn of the century until the forced deportation of Japanese Americans to internment camps during WWII. When the Emperor Was Divine tells the story of one family, from the days just preceding their departure from California to a camp in […]



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