When The Emperor Was Divine........Chapter 4

1}Who is narrating this chapter?
Both of the children
2}What has changed while the family was away?
Some of the stores are gone, the girl working the counter has gotten older, and their friends no longer speak to them.
3}What has happened to the family’s furniture and to the money they were supposed to get for renting their house?
The furniture is gone and the man has sent them no money.
4}Why doesn’t the narrator tell us what words have been written on the wall? What earlier episode in the book does this recall?
He doesn't tell us the words because they were really bad. They recall earlier when people called them offensive names.
5}Why does the family choose to sleep in the back room? What sort of things have happened to other people coming back from the camp? Who might be saying the words printed in italics on page 112?
They didn't realize it at first but they chose the back room because they were so accustomed to the rooms at the camps. Other people coming back from the camps have had their house set on fire and have been socially alienated. The words in itilacs are spoken by neighbors.
6}How quickly do the children and their mother adapt to freedom? What habits of their internment do they still cling to?
Things may never go back to normal. They remain sleeping in the same room and in the same pattern as they had at the camps.
7}How do the family’s neighbors treat them on their return, and how does this compare to their behavior earlier? On the rare occasions that someone actually asks where they’ve been, why does the mother respond so vaguely?
The family used to be very social and popular but now are outcasts. She responds vaguely because she knows everyone knows where they have been and the person asking is only trying to be funny.
8}How much money is the family given on its release? What is the significance of this sum?
The family receives $25, this is the same amount given to a prisoner upon his release from jail.
9}How does the narrator describe the men coming back from the war? What do the fragments of dialogue tell us about them? What is the effect of these stories of Japanese atrocities? Does it lessen your sympathy for the family? How do these stories make the children feel?
Many of the men never come back from the war and the ones that do are not the same. Some are missing ligaments and others are shell-shocked. This is what causes people to resent the Japanese more. It does not lessen my sympathy for the family because their were many Japanese killed and tortured also. America ended up winning. These people made the children feeled embarressed to be Japanese.
10}What measures do the children take to fit in following their return? How does their new behavior correspond to popular stereotypes of Japanese Americans?
They don't try to fit in. They were very polite and quiet. Japanese Americans were blamed for everything that happened.
11}“If 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). If we did something terribly wrong we immediately said we were sorry (I’m sorry I touched your arm. I didn’t mean to, it was an accident, I didn’t see it resting there so quietly, so beautifully, so perfectly, so irresistibly, on the edge of the desk. I lost my balance and brushed against it by mistake, I was standing too close, I wasn’t watching where I was going, somebody pushed me from behind, I never wanted to touch you, I have always wanted to touch you, I will never touch you again, I promise, I swear…)” [pp. 122-23] Are these things the narrator is actually saying or only thinking? Who is being addressed? How does the emotional tone of the paragraph change as it progresses?
The narrator is thinking things that has actually been said by him/her. They are addressing any American. The emotional tone starts off apologetic but ends in resentment and anger.
12}Why do the children keep seeing their old possessions around the neighborhood, and why does their father appear among them? Are we meant to take this literally or as an ironic metaphor? In what ways does this passage echo earlier false sightings of the father?
The neighbors took the families things while they were gone. Their father appears among them because he really was there.
13}Why does the mother take a job? What reason does she give for turning down the job in a department store? What does she say are the secrets of being a successful housecleaner?
She has no money left. She had too much pride for who she was and did not want to be put down like that. She said the secret was being social. But not too social or people would think you thought you were better than them.
14}How does the narrator describe the father? How does this description compare to earlier ones?
He was old and bald with a mouth full of dentures. In the beginning he was young, handsome, and strong.
15}How has the father changed during his incarceration? How do the children seem to feel about these changes?
He know longer laughs and jokes with the children or make them puppet shows. The children do not like these changes.
16}Toward the end of this chapter Otsuka writes: “Speech was beginning to come back. In the school yard. On the street. They were calling out to us now. Not many of them, just a few. At first we pretended not to hear them, but after a while we could no longer resist.” Who is calling out? What is it that the narrators are unable to resist? Do you find this passage hopeful or ominous?
Other children are calling out to them to come and play with them. They are unable to resist going and playing with the other children. This passage is hopeful.