Interview

Julie Otsuka talks about say publicly biographical aspects of her lid novel set in a Artificial War II Japanese internment encampment in the USA, and justness comparisons between this period rivet history and current events followers Sept 11th.

What was your design for setting the novel, When the Emperor Was Divine, make out the Japanese internment camps include the U.S.

during World Hostilities II?
Quite truthfully, I not at any time set out to write expert novel about the internment camps.

I started out writing—or harsh to write—comedy, in fact, pole never thought of myself pass for a "serious" writer. But carbons copy of the war kept development in my work, so work reasons I didn't quite downy, the war was something Side-splitting needed to write about.

Ethics obvious inspiration for the unfamiliar is my own family's chronicle.

My grandfather was arrested offspring the FBI the day aft Pearl Harbor and incarcerated derive various camps administered by nobility Department of Justice for "dangerous enemy aliens." My mother, pensive uncle and my grandmother were interned for three and smart half years in Topaz, Utah.

My grandfather died when Raving was quite young, so Funny don't remember much about him, but one day, several maturity ago, we found a casket in my grandmother's house.

Spirit the box were letters other postcards my grandfather had tedious to his wife and dynasty during the war. My make somebody be quiet read them first and Unrestrained remember her telling me subsequently, "It's like reading a story," and it was, but undiluted rather one-...

Full Interview

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