A theme of loss of identity in "When the Emperor Was Divine", the United States opens hostilities with Japan and relations between the two nations reach an extremely tense situation. The profound effect of the war was that many Japanese began to experience hardship and suffering in the following years. All Japanese Americans, no matter who they were, adults or children, were suspected of being spies. The novel When the Emperor Was Divine recounts a Japanese American family's experience in internment camps during World War II. The father is arrested by the US government on suspicion of being a spy and the mother is left to care for her two young children and move to an internment camp in Utah. After a few years, the family leaves the internment camp, returns home and awaits the father's return. However, after the father returns home, thin and exhausted, the family, forever changed, attempts to piece together their new existence. Julie Otsuka, the author of the novel, uses this family and the unjust marginalization of Japanese Americans during that time to convey that when people are unjustly marginalized, they lose their self-esteem and feel subordinate to those that surround them, thus leading to their loss of identity. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Loss of Symbolism of Identity in “When the Emperor Was Divine” To begin with, although marginalization leads to a loss of he identity among people of all ages, it is precisely the marginalization of children at school which can also manifest their feeling of subordination and therefore their loss of identity. In When the Emperor Was Divine, when the Japanese children return to school, they find that the school's attitude toward them has changed. So they say, "Maybe they didn't expect us to come back and they made us lose our minds once and for all a long time ago." One day we were there and the next day, poof, our names had been removed from the registers, our desks and lockers reassigned, we were gone. »(Otsuka 121). The change in attitudes of classmates and the school towards them is an obvious representation of the subordinate position and unequal marginalization of Japanese children. From the perspective of Japanese children, their classmates may never expect their return and even they have forgotten them. Even though Japanese children have encountered such difficulties in their childhood, classmates still don't show them sympathy because they have never really cared about Japanese children. Additionally, when Japanese children left school for internment, their names were removed from registers, desks, and lockers. As a defining feature of human identity, the names of Japanese children were crossed out, as if they never existed. In this particular era, neither the school nor their classmates want to have an intimate relationship with Japanese children in order to avoid trouble. Thus, the Japanese are isolated by the outside society, which also leads to a loss of identity. In addition to the indifferent attitude of their classmates, Japanese children also need to pay attention to their own behavior and words at school. For example: “We said yes and no and no problem. We said thank you. Don't even think about it. When our teacher asked us if everything was okay, we nodded and said, yes, of course, everything was okay. (Otsuka 122). From the above we can understand that Japanese children always find themselves in an unequal positioncompared to their classmates. Japanese children are subordinate and more polite, behave respectfully, and pretend to forgive others tolerantly. Attributes of Japanese children's subordinate position to American racism which also promotes the loss of their identity among Japanese Americans. Here, “of course, everything was fine.” is an irony that expresses children's dissatisfaction and helplessness. Because after returning to school, everything has changed at school and even they can't find their own position, but when the teacher asks them if everything is okay, they can't tell the truth either. Japanese children don't want to admit that they are different from their classmates, so they respond that everything is fine. There is also another example of Japanese children at school: "We did something wrong, we made sure to say excuse me (excuse me for looking at you, excuse me for sitting here, excuse me for coming back)… I always wanted to touch you, I will never touch you again, I promise, I swear…” (Otsuka 123). The unfair treatment of Japanese children at school is obviously visible in this paragraph. No matter what Japanese children do, even no matter who makes mistakes, Japanese children should always be more polite and apologize for what they do. Due to their loss of identity, when they seek contact with their classmates, they always find themselves in a subordinate position. The unfair marginalization of Japanese children by their classmates is the salient representation of their loss of identity. Like When the Emperor Was Divine, the short story The Silence also demonstrates that the marginalization of children at school leads to their loss of identity. The story's central character, Ozawa, recounts how he was accused of a crime he didn't commit, leading the entire school to marginalize him as something he wasn't . He said: “No one in the whole school would talk to me. I went to school in silence, I attended classes in silence, I went home in silence. I lost my appetite, I lost weight, I couldn't sleep at night. I lay there, all angry, my head filled with this endless succession of ugly images. The unfair treatment Ozawa received from his entire school clearly affected him very badly. He suffered emotional and physical trauma because of this. Because of the marginalization he received from his classmates, he could no longer eat, he could not sleep, he practically lost all sense of himself, or at least, his identity, which proves that when people are unfairly marginalized, they get lost. They have value and feel subordinate to those around them, thus leading to their loss of identity. Particularity of Japanese without a name in the novel Generally speaking, if authors want their writings to be easily understood, they always choose to give names to the characters. But in some texts, like When the Emperor Was Divine, the author must want to express a particular meaning through the anonymous main characters. The anonymity of a character indicates the loss of his being, and therefore of his identity. The four central characters of the novel are all anonymous, but are instead referred to as: mother, daughter, father and son. Because they are Japanese American, they are seen as different from true Native Americans in their habits, values, and worldview. They live in an environment where American and Japanese cultures mix. And the marginalization they experience even leads to their own obsession with their Japanese identity in American society. For example, when the mother and children.

Essay / A theme of loss of identity in "When the Emperor Was Divine", the United States opens hostilities with Japan and relations between the two nations reach an extremely tense situation. The profound effect of the war was that many Japanese began to experience hardship and suffering in the following years. All Japanese Americans, no matter who they were, adults or children, were suspected of being spies. The novel When the Emperor Was Divine recounts a Japanese American family's experience in internment camps during World War II. The father is arrested by the US government on suspicion of being a spy and the mother is left to care for her two young children and move to an internment camp in Utah. After a few years, the family leaves the internment camp, returns home and awaits the father's return. However, after the father returns home, thin and exhausted, the family, forever changed, attempts to piece together their new existence. Julie Otsuka, the author of the novel, uses this family and the unjust marginalization of Japanese Americans during that time to convey that when people are unjustly marginalized, they lose their self-esteem and feel subordinate to those that surround them, thus leading to their loss of identity. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Loss of Symbolism of Identity in “When the Emperor Was Divine” To begin with, although marginalization leads to a loss of he identity among people of all ages, it is precisely the marginalization of children at school which can also manifest their feeling of subordination and therefore their loss of identity. In When the Emperor Was Divine, when the Japanese children return to school, they find that the school's attitude toward them has changed. So they say, "Maybe they didn't expect us to come back and they made us lose our minds once and for all a long time ago." One day we were there and the next day, poof, our names had been removed from the registers, our desks and lockers reassigned, we were gone. »(Otsuka 121). The change in attitudes of classmates and the school towards them is an obvious representation of the subordinate position and unequal marginalization of Japanese children. From the perspective of Japanese children, their classmates may never expect their return and even they have forgotten them. Even though Japanese children have encountered such difficulties in their childhood, classmates still don't show them sympathy because they have never really cared about Japanese children. Additionally, when Japanese children left school for internment, their names were removed from registers, desks, and lockers. As a defining feature of human identity, the names of Japanese children were crossed out, as if they never existed. In this particular era, neither the school nor their classmates want to have an intimate relationship with Japanese children in order to avoid trouble. Thus, the Japanese are isolated by the outside society, which also leads to a loss of identity. In addition to the indifferent attitude of their classmates, Japanese children also need to pay attention to their own behavior and words at school. For example: “We said yes and no and no problem. We said thank you. Don't even think about it. When our teacher asked us if everything was okay, we nodded and said, yes, of course, everything was okay. (Otsuka 122). From the above we can understand that Japanese children always find themselves in an unequal positioncompared to their classmates. Japanese children are subordinate and more polite, behave respectfully, and pretend to forgive others tolerantly. Attributes of Japanese children's subordinate position to American racism which also promotes the loss of their identity among Japanese Americans. Here, “of course, everything was fine.” is an irony that expresses children's dissatisfaction and helplessness. Because after returning to school, everything has changed at school and even they can't find their own position, but when the teacher asks them if everything is okay, they can't tell the truth either. Japanese children don't want to admit that they are different from their classmates, so they respond that everything is fine. There is also another example of Japanese children at school: "We did something wrong, we made sure to say excuse me (excuse me for looking at you, excuse me for sitting here, excuse me for coming back)… I always wanted to touch you, I will never touch you again, I promise, I swear…” (Otsuka 123). The unfair treatment of Japanese children at school is obviously visible in this paragraph. No matter what Japanese children do, even no matter who makes mistakes, Japanese children should always be more polite and apologize for what they do. Due to their loss of identity, when they seek contact with their classmates, they always find themselves in a subordinate position. The unfair marginalization of Japanese children by their classmates is the salient representation of their loss of identity. Like When the Emperor Was Divine, the short story The Silence also demonstrates that the marginalization of children at school leads to their loss of identity. The story's central character, Ozawa, recounts how he was accused of a crime he didn't commit, leading the entire school to marginalize him as something he wasn't . He said: “No one in the whole school would talk to me. I went to school in silence, I attended classes in silence, I went home in silence. I lost my appetite, I lost weight, I couldn't sleep at night. I lay there, all angry, my head filled with this endless succession of ugly images. The unfair treatment Ozawa received from his entire school clearly affected him very badly. He suffered emotional and physical trauma because of this. Because of the marginalization he received from his classmates, he could no longer eat, he could not sleep, he practically lost all sense of himself, or at least, his identity, which proves that when people are unfairly marginalized, they get lost. They have value and feel subordinate to those around them, thus leading to their loss of identity. Particularity of Japanese without a name in the novel Generally speaking, if authors want their writings to be easily understood, they always choose to give names to the characters. But in some texts, like When the Emperor Was Divine, the author must want to express a particular meaning through the anonymous main characters. The anonymity of a character indicates the loss of his being, and therefore of his identity. The four central characters of the novel are all anonymous, but are instead referred to as: mother, daughter, father and son. Because they are Japanese American, they are seen as different from true Native Americans in their habits, values, and worldview. They live in an environment where American and Japanese cultures mix. And the marginalization they experience even leads to their own obsession with their Japanese identity in American society. For example, when the mother and children.

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