I decided to read Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. This book is about the Japanese internment camps that were set up in America during World War II and how they affected this particular family.
It tells the story of the separation of family members, hardships, and hatred that they had to live with during this time period. It also helps to open our eyes to the irony of the whole situation and how our government can contradict themselves over some of the issues we were fighting for. The book tells the story from the point of view of Jeanne Wakatsuki, the main character, and how she and her family struggled to make it through this time period in American History. The book is told from Jeanne’s own experiences in her own town, how her peers at school treated her, and what it was like being uprooted from their home and being put into the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar.
The book is about the news of Pearl Harbor and the reactions of the Wakatsuki family. It begins with the father being taken away for supposedly supplying oil to Japanese submarines off the coast while fishing. The book also details how their neighbors and people throughout their town treated them after the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It sheds light on one girl’s point of view and her confusion about why people are being mean to her and her family. The book also describes how it felt to be split up from her father and how they felt like prisoners in a country. It gives great detail about life in Japanese internment camps, specifically Manzanar, near Mammoth.
It gives good details on their cramped living situations and how there was no privacy. It describes how women used to put boxes over their heads in the restroom so they didn’t have to look at anyone, hoping it would offer them a little privacy. The text also talks about the games, activities, and chores that the children played to pass the time. It describes the mess hall and the repetitive meals they had to eat. Another amazing thing is that the government tried to tell them that these camps were for their own protection, yet they were surrounded by barbed wire. During the final chapters of this book, the author does a great job describing the tough time the Japanese had returning to society.
After the Japanese were released from these camps and allowed to return to their homes, America still held a fear and hatred towards these people. She does a great job describing how hard it was for her to return back into society and how the people she had known growing up looked at her and viewed her. She also had to endure comments and reactions from people she didn’t even know. These camps only stopped the bleeding during the war. After the war, their release was like opening the wound again. Executive Order 9066, which President Franklin Roosevelt passed, was probably one of America’s darkest moments.
Here in America, we are fighting a war in Europe against a German government that has put Jews and other minorities into similar camps. While these American camps were not death camps, they still made Japanese Americans live in harsh conditions because America was afraid of them. The government divided families, removed them from their homes and lives, and forced them to enter these camps so that we could feel safe. These camps illustrated the type of atmosphere that existed in America during this time period. Most of the Japanese who were put into these camps were Japanese Americans who had never been to Japan but knew about it from what they had heard from others about the country and had some of the traditions passed on to them from previous generations. We segregated these people from our society out of fear and hate because of what had happened at Pearl Harbor. During this time period, America was fighting a war in both the east and west.
There was fear of a Japanese attack on the West Coast, which only helped create an even more tense situation. The natural reaction would be fear, but we grouped all Japanese into one category and allowed our fear to play a major role, rather than our common sense and respect for their constitutional rights. The camps that the Japanese were put into during World War II were horrible and ruined most of their lives. They will be scarred for the rest of their lives with images and recollections of their time spent in these camps. Many of these people could not return to society in America and chose to go back to Japan, where they felt they might be able to get on with their lives and put the times that they spent in the internment camps behind them. For those who decided to stay here in America, they were forced to live with the hatred that some Americans felt towards them and to work through all of these problems that faced them.
This was a great book and a very informative historical reference to a particular Japanese girl’s struggles during this time. This book clearly illustrated one of the darkest time periods in American history, a time that many people would like to forget and wish had never happened. Bibliography:
