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The Japanese Emperor
In a novel rife with symbols, trees are perhaps the most recurring one. On the most basic level, trees represent home, one’s roots in the ground. On the evening before the family is relocated, the woman plucks a leaf from their tree in the backyard, as if taking with her a memento of home before she leaves for an unknown period of time. The trees then begin to take on more symbolic significance when characters throughout the novel—including minor characters like Teizo “Ted” Ishimoto—feel shocked at the total absence of trees at the camps. For them, the lack of trees is a clear sign that the camp will never be “home.” Trees are stable and require deep roots to live, but the camp is merely a temporary dwelling place, rather than a home, for the duration of the war. When the army actually tries to plant trees at the camp, they all die, illustrating the incompatibility of home with internment. With the trees dead, the army instead puts up street signs named after trees in a vain, superficial attempt to make the camp seem more like home. But the internment camp is only a real home inasmuch as the “Oak Street” sign is a real tree.
Trees Quotes in When the Emperor was Divine
The When the Emperor was Divine quotes below all refer to the symbol of Trees. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3
Quotes
Several days later, the street signs appeared. Suddenly there was an Elm Street, a Willow Street, a Cottonwood way… “It doesn’t look like we’ll be leaving here any time soon,” said the boy’s mother.
“At least we know where we are,” said the girl.
Related Characters:
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Trees Symbol Timeline in When the Emperor was Divine
The timeline below shows where the symbol Trees appears in When the Emperor was Divine. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Evacuation Order No. 19
...Oriental rug in the living room, takes down the mirrors, and plants the tiny bonsai tree in the yard. She goes upstairs to pack up her son’s stamp collection, his comic...
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...her hands a few times and an old white dog comes limping out of the trees. “Eat up, White Dog,” she says. The woman thinks about how the grass hasn’t been...
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...with the twine she bought from the store, she ties the dog to the big tree in the backyard. She tells the dog to play dead and it rolls over. She...
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...window, the bird taps on the pane with its claw, and then flies into a tree. The woman takes a broom and goes outside, shaking the branches and yelling at the...
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Chapter 2: Train
...back of the train. The girl throws the lemon out the window and hits a tree. The woman tells her not to lose her arm sticking it out the window, and...
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...father had told her in a letter, the girl tells Ted that there are no trees in New Mexico. Ted responds, “No trees!” and shakes his head sadly, as if this...
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Chapter 3: When The Emperor Was Divine
In late November, the army plants full-grown trees at the camp. As the woman looks at the trees from the barrack room window,...
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All the trees die at the beginning of spring, and soon afterward a man is shot dead near...
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When the following summer arrives, street signs with the names of trees appear throughout the camp. Seeing the signs suddenly appear,...
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Chapter 4: In a Stranger’s Backyard
...the girl. When the family arrives home after the war, the children notice that the trees seem taller and the rosebush the woman planted in the front yard is no longer...
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...Wolf!” The woman walks out the back door and stands under the shade of the tree. The boy and the girl think about how they came from a place without any...
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