When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka Stars 4/5

Review:

Those who read 'The Buddha in the Attic' should also read 'When the Emperor Was Divine' which is also set in the same premise - the lives of the Japanese in the US during WW2.
'The Buddha in the Attic' was like the voice of many and not about a single main character but 'When the Emperor Was Divine' is about one unnamed family and the final chapters are said hard-hitting like a response from all the affected person point of view to the country that is treating them like an alien. This is not a melodramatic story, and it ends with a positive note about their hope.

Plot:

The story is about a Japanese family living in the US during World War II Says how men were named a traitor and prisoned secretly for years and how their families were sent to Utah desert to internment camps for years.
The family is first separated from the father and living in an internment camp, their life changes there, after years when they are back to their home they see how ruined their places are, kids are still missing their father, they are visit school and asked to not intervene the whites, they ask apologies even if their hand touches them mistakenly.
After years when their father returns the kids are not sure if it was him, he is looking different now, pale, energy drained.

Quotes from the book:
“But we never stopped believing that somewhere out there, in some stranger's backyard, our mother's rosebush was blossoming madly, wildly, pressing one perfect red flower after another out into the late afternoon light.”

"We used to live in the desert. We used to wake every morning, to the blast of a siren. We used to stand in line for our meals three times a day. We used to stand in line for our mail. We used to stand in line to get coal. We used to stand in line whenever we had to shower or use the latrine. We used to hear the wind hissing day and night through the sagebrush. We used to hear coyotes. We used to hear every word spoken by our neighbors on the other side of the thin barrack wall ... We used to try and imagine what it would be like when we finally returned home."