Julie Otsuka is a Japanese American author. Otsuka is known for her historical fiction novels dealing with Japanese Americans. Her books are known for calling attention to the plight of Japanese Americans throughout World War II. She did not live through the Japanese Internment period, but her mother, uncle, and two grandparents did, which gives Otsuka a unique and personal perspective on the matter. When the Emperor was Divine was the first fiction novel where she discusses Japanese internment camps. With a background as a painter, Julie Otsuka's attention to detail and great descriptions give the reader vivid imagery of different situations throughout her novels. She is a recipient of the Albatros Literaturpreis.
2014 Albatros Literaturpreis for Wovon wir träumten co-won with German translator Katja Scholtz.
Works
A novel written by Julie Otsuka in 2002 describing a Japanese American family that was put into an internment camp in the second World War. The novel follows a family made up of a mother, her two children and their father who was incarcerated and whose location is unknown until his return after the war. The novel depicts the struggle of Japanese Americans at the time and the unimaginable life conditions that these people suffered during and after the internment period. The first three chapters are told in the perspective of the mother, the eleven-year-old daughter and the eight-year-old son. The fourth chapter is told through a "we" perspective that is an attempt to articulate the struggle to Japanese Americans as a whole and the fifth giving the perspective of the family's father. In an interview published on Indiebound, in response to the question, "What made you choose Japanese-American internment camps as the subject matter for your first novel," Otsuka replied, "I feel like the subject matter chose me. I had never planned to write a novel about the camps -- too daunting, subject-matter-wise, and who was I to tell this particular story anyway? Would anyone even want to hear about the camps? But images of the war seemed to keep surfacing in my work, so clearly the camps were something I needed to write about."
This novel is similar to When the Emperor was Divine in terms that both deal with the troubles of Japanese Americans living in a new land. They both confront the harsh reality that the American Dream is not something so easily attained. In 8 sections, this novel chronicles a few Japanese picture brides who are to be sent to the United States in order to get married. Despite dreaming of the wonderful life they will live in America, they are instead presented with a life of labor and discrimination. These hardships only get worse as The United States gets involved in World War II
Diem Perdidi is a short story that follows the scattered memories of the protagonist's mother as her mother's dementia progresses.
