Chapter 3 When the Emperor Was Divine, pages 49-76 Summary

At the internment camp in Utah the boy thinks he sees his father everywhere. Once at mealtime in the mess hall he shouts out, "Papa." His mother corrects him, and his sister kicks him.

The boy and his mother and sister live in a single room in some tar-papered barracks. They have few furnishings besides their three iron cots and radio. The boy has a photo of Joe DiMaggio fastened to the wall. At night the boy listens to reports of the war on the radio, and he can also hear through the thin walls the activities of other people.

The guards at the camp are soldiers, and the boy imagines that some of them have been in combat in the Pacific. His mother gives him specific directions for...