Analysis of Jeanne Wakatsuki Huston´s Farewell to Manzanar

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The internment of Japanese Americans is often a part of history rarely mention in our society. One of these internment camps was Manzanar—a hastily built community in the high desert mountains of California. The sole purpose of Manzanar was to house thousands of Japanese Americans who were held captive by their own country. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was interned at Manzanar when she was seven years old with her family. Their only crime was being of Japanese descent. In her memoir, “Farewell to Manzanar,” Mrs. Wakatsuki Houston transcribes a powerful, heart breaking account of her childhood memories and her personal meaning of Manzanar. At the start of the book, we are introduced to a young Jeanne Wakatsuki. Out of ten children, she is the youngest and as a result is more sheltered than the others. The Wakatsuki family is fairly well off. Ko Wakatsuki, the family’s patriarch, owns two fishing boats and with his oldest sons fishes commercially. On the day the story opens, Jeanne and the women in her family are watching the men set sail to fish. However, they return to shore with the news of Pearl Harbor has been bombed by the Japanese. Jeanne’s father, Ko, burns his Japanese flag and anything that shows his Japanese identity, though it does no good. Ko is arrested on charges of supplying oil to Japanese submarines and sent to South Dakota. The remaining family unit begins many moves—first to the ghetto on Terminal Island, then to Boyle Heights, and finally to Manzanar. After arriving at the camp, the Wakatsuki’s found the bare minimum living conditions. Jeanne describes their family space as two barrack units that were “sixteen by twenty feet, about the size of a living room, with one bare light bulb hanging from t... ... middle of paper ... ... occurrences of racial intolerance are countless within this text. The other main theme is the role of family. In the beginning, Jeanne’s family is a close knit one. Ko is a strong patriarch and the 10 siblings are close. By the end, the siblings are scattered across the country. Ko has lost most of the respect his children had and is scraping by in life. From the naïve seven year old girl being ripped from the only home she knew, to the provocative seventeen year old teen trying to be accepted in American society, to the thirty seven year old mother in reclaiming her past, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston shares a unique view on one of the bleakest times of American history. For her the meaning of Manzanar was where life began. For so many other Japanese, Manzanar has a million different meanings. This is a vivid, impactful story that should never be forgotten.

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