This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
In our recent past, Utah schoolchildren didn't learn about the tragic history of the Topaz War Relocation Center, the dusty internment camp in the West Desert that housed American citizens of Japanese descent during World War II.
Julie Otsuka was inspired to write her 2002 novel, "When the Emperor Was Divine," by her mother's time in the Utah camps. The novel will be the focus of the Tribune's October Utah Lit book club conversation Oct. 23 at sltrib.com.
Otsuka's mother was interned at age 10, along with her brother and mother, while her mother's father was falsely accused of being a spy. Yet the writer didn't learn much from her mother about that part of their family's history. "As a parent, maybe my mother just wanted to protect her children from that knowledge, and let us grow up knowing that America was a very safe place," Otsuka told writer Laura Reynolds Adler for BookPage.com.
Otsuka's novel, narrated by four unnamed family members, traces the family's time in the camp, as well as their challenges when they attempt to return to their lives in California. "The novel's voice is hushed as a whisper as it lets its story unfold through the successive points of view of its central characters," wrote Francine Prose in O magazine. —
Utah Lit: October
Join The Salt Lake Tribune in October talking about Julie Otsuka's novel "When the Emperor Was Divine," about a Japanese-American family sent to the Topaz internment camp during World War II.
When • Thursday, Oct. 23, at 12:15 p.m.
Join us • Send comments or questions to ellenf@sltrib.com or jnpearce@sltrib.com; text 801-609-8059; or use the Twitter hashtag #TribTalk.
Reading • Otsuka will appear at the Utah Humanities Council and the Salt Lake Library's "Big Read" event at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, at the City Library auditorium, 210 E. 400 South, Salt Lake City.
Also • In October, Salt Lake County's One County, One Book program focuses on William Kent Krueger's "Ordinary Grace." The author will give a reading Thursday, Oct. 16, at 7 p.m. at the Viridian Library and Event Center, 8030 S. 1825 West, West Jordan.