Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
When the Emperor Was Divine  By  cover art

When the Emperor Was Divine

By: Julie Otsuka
Narrated by: Elaina Erika Davis
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $10.75

Buy for $10.75

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

On a sunny day in Berkeley, California, in 1942, a woman sees a sign in a post office window, returns to her house, and matter-of-factly begins to pack her family's possessions. Like thousands of other Japanese Americans, they have been reclassified virtually overnight as enemy aliens, and they are about to be uprooted from their home and sent to a dusty internment camp in the Utah desert.

In this lean and devastatingly evocative first novel, Julie Otsuka tells their story from five flawlessly realized points of view and conveys the exact emotional texture of their experience: the thin-walled barracks and barbed-wire fences, the omnipresent fear and loneliness, the unheralded feats of heroism.

When the Emperor Was Divine is a work of enormous power that makes a shameful episode of our history as immediate as today's headlines.

©2003 Julie Otsuka (P)2003 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, A Division of Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

  • Alex Award Winner, 2003

"Exceptional...Otsuka skillfully dramatizes a world suddenly foreign...[Her] incantatory, unsentimental prose is the book's greatest strength." (The New Yorker)
"The novel's honesty and matter-of-fact tone in the face of inconceivable injustice are the source of its power." (Publishers Weekly)
"Mesmerizing." (The New York Times)

Featured Article: 10 Audiobooks to Listen to on the Day of Remembrance


In 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, mandating the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes. Nearly 120,000 Japanese immigrants and native born Japanese Americans were imprisoned in concentration camps for the duration of World War II. We need to bear witness to the atrocities committed by the United States government and the pain our leadership caused innocent men, women, and children of Japanese heritage.

What listeners say about When the Emperor Was Divine

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    229
  • 4 Stars
    108
  • 3 Stars
    78
  • 2 Stars
    24
  • 1 Stars
    12
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    225
  • 4 Stars
    83
  • 3 Stars
    34
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    3
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    194
  • 4 Stars
    82
  • 3 Stars
    54
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    7

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Well written. Don't agree with the author's point.

I heard so many good things about this book (and the fact that many schools recommend it) that I was very eager to read it myself. What a letdown! In fact, the book actually made me feel that the government was correct in what they did to individuals of Japanese decent during WW II, something I never thought before!

We are never lead to believe that the family this tale revolves around are actually citizens of the United States but rather are resident aliens. Pearl Harbor has just been attacked by Japan for no reason other than pure aggression. Americans DIED there, and many, many more DIED on the Pacific warfront over the next several years. Yet when the family's matriarch is asked to swear loyalty to the United States, her attitude is one of "I'll say yes because I don't want to make trouble, because I don't want to go back to Japan, because these are only meaningless words to me." This is when I completely lost all sympathy with the family.

Yes, the book shows the subsequent desintegration of the family that the war had caused. But, as the author points out, many families that were their neighbors also suffered losses and family disruptions. Their husbands and sons were separated to war and many never came back.

Was our government right to do what it did during those war years? Personally I don't think so, but this book certainly didn't reinforce my sympathy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

Fascinating book, couldn't wait to drive home to turn on the ipod and listen.
A classic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Narrator

I'm not sure I would have appreciated fully the power and beauty of this story if not for the narrators incredible performance. Loved her voice in telling this

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Not at all what I expected.

I thought this would be a book about the evil things done to the Japanese daily during Japanese internment. Fast moving. Keeping me on the edge of my seat. No, not so. It is a long story beginning with simply planning a trip into the unknown. It slowly lets you live their journey. It could not be quickly told or it would have lost its impact. And yes, it was about the evil things done. Just not the way I thought. Let yourself live in their shoes for a view hours. You will definitely have strong, sad feelings,

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Human nature is to stereotype

Hard to resist the leap to compare this to the more recent horror of 9/11. How it must feel to be of Middle Eastern decent today. How it must have felt to be Japanese back then.
I do not say this to offend anyone, it could be said of any of us that someone of our race or country has done unthinkable things.
I think high school students would benefit from reading this book. Thank you

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Executive Order 9066- Japanese Internment

Julie Otsuka's book takes the reader into the lives of a small Japanese American family as they are 'evacuated' and interned in a camp throughout World War two and then on to their return to civilization after the war. The story with bring tears, anger, questions, and greater vision to the reader. The author dealt with this delicate subject with great dignity and grace. The journey taken was enlightening and the imagery used throughout was insightful and memorable. Best book club read of the year.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Amazing 😉 wow 😳

Must read for diversity. Trauma and a different perspective of another culture for stereotypes and biases that are so commonly accepted. Now seen from a wonderfully told story of the another story less heard and shared in common society

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful book

I believe this book is a must read. Our country is so divided & prejudice and racism is rising again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Sad but Good

No complaints on the book. Read it for school. Great narration and very interesting story.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

powerful and simple

Powerful book. Her narration speaks volumes with few words. The story is beautiful and tragic. we visited Ft. Missoula after reading this and they have all but buried this portion of history.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful