Essay Questions

Why does Otsuka refer to the family without names?

Otsuka refers to the family without names (the boy, the girl, etc.) to show the dehumanization that trauma causes. When people undergo incredible trauma, they lose sense of who were they were before the trauma, and their lives completely become the situation they find themselves in. During internment, when the family are not seen as people and instead as nameless Japanse people to be incarcerated, they lose their sense of self, and so Otsuka tries to display that through their lack of personal names.

The children's relationship with their father is a complicated one. Explain why the boy is so transfixed with the image of their father being taken away in his pajamas, and why the father keeps his letters so positive.

The boy is embarrassed that his father was taken away in his pajamas because he sees it as his father being taken away during a moment of weakness: he was sleeping, in pajamas, and not dressed well and engaging in masculine activities. Because of this, the boy is haunted by the image of his father being weak and vulnerable wherever he has been taken away. This contributes to the father's letters. While he shares details of where he is being kept (that it is cold during the winter, what state he is in, etc.), he tries to keep his letters positive, and write about any good things he can say about the camp. He tries to paint himself as strong and happy to make his children less afraid for him, especially after seeing him be taken away in such a compromised state.

Who is "The Emperor?" Why is he invoked so many times throughout the book?

The Emperor is the emperor of Japan who led the Asian front of WWII. This is the reason why Japanese Americans are put into internment camps, despite the fact that their Japanese heritage does not make them supporters of the Japanese emperor. The invocation of "the emperor," especially by the woman, is a call out to their heritage that they are being punished for. The family has no loyalty to the emperor, and invoke his name almost sarcastically, because loyalty to him is so far-fetched, but the name of the emperor also acts as a symbol for a Japanese heritage that feels as distant as the country of Japan, but also incredibly close, because of internment and war.