Quotable Quotes - "When The Emperor Was Divine"

"'You can't remember everything,' she said. 'And even when you can you shouldn't,' said the girl. 'I wouldn't say that,' said her mother. 'You didn't,' said the girl."

This conversation takes place while the mother is talking to the brother; a quick side conversation with mother and daughter.  When I was reading and came across these sentences, I stopped and re-read them.  The girl's comment is stated in such a matter-of-fact way, but I think she understood it's deeper meaning, which I picked up on as well. "...even when you can you shouldn't," she says about remembering things.  Exploring the notion that there are things that happen within ones life that aren't necessarily pleasant to remember, that shouldn't be remembered.  Including this statement in the book even before the girl, her mother and brother get to the camp is interesting and leads the reader to see that her father's arrest and other past experiences are so negative or painful that she wants her brother to know that he does not need to remember everything.  She could be telling him this as advice for the future, or applying it to things in his past as she seems to have done, or tried to do, with her own.  I found this statement very powerful because, unfortunately, there are things that can happen in one's life that should not be remembered.  Whether it is the memory of a traumatic event or highly negative thoughts you had, the specifics are not pleasant and event should not be relived.  While I think that the lessons and positive experiences that may have resulted from such traumas, such as learning to avoid certain situations, are important and should be remembered, I agree with the girl's statement about not always needing to remember everything.

"Life was easier, they said, on this side of the fence."

This is said by the girl as she explaining what the people who had been recruited by farmers and traveled to work in other places specified by the War Relocation Authority.  Some returned unscathed and without issue, but others returned with horror stories, vowing to never leave the camp area again.  The vast changes that swept through most of the United States in regards to peoples thoughts and treatment of the Japanese population is seen even in this little explanation.  Men and women come back with stories about signs that read "No Japs Allowed" and other restrictions and exclusions that were put on them in public places.  This directly correlates to the and segregation of blacks and whites - showing yet another time in history when fear and difference took hold of our leaders and influenced policy.  When one prefers to live in a confined and imprisoned area versus the outside world, there is clearly a major problem, and quite possibly multiple problems within the greater community.