Broken Silence

When answering the question why does the author break the silence surrounding this historical event by telling this story? Otsuka choose to tell this particular story because to her, her family members and the rest of Japanese people it was an important event as well as life changing. What I do not understand is that if her own mother and grandmother lived in these internment camps, well basically lived through this awful time then why didn’t she write about their stories? However by Otsuka writing this particular story it allowed many Japanese people being to feel a sense of relief or maybe it allowed them to release any built up emotions that they have carried around with them all these years. To be honest without this particular book, and having it assigned as a book to read in class, I would know nothing about this particular period of time. I understand that we learned about the bombing and the war between the United States and Japan in our history classes but without the book and the stories we may never fully understand what the Japanese people went through during this time. However why did Otsuka wait so long to tell this story, if she felt it was an important story to tell then why so many years later. Like I previously stated that the book was a way of release, the release of emotions for the Japanese people, but Otsuka also published the book the same year of the 9/11 attacks. Was she trying to tell the United States something, maybe like payback for all these years of pain and anger the Japanese people suffered at the hands of the United States military. Or was she trying to let everyone know that when something terrible happens to a certain country and affects the people of that country that someone is willing to tell their story. With Otsuka writing When the Emperor was Divine it allowed many Japanese people to be free, free of everything, and allowed the people to have a voice after all these years.