Essay On Farewell To Manzanar

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In the years of internment, about 11,000 Japanese Americans were sent to the Manzanar, one of the smaller but well-known internment camps. The Wakatsuki family was one of the many families that lived in this camp. Farewell to Manzanar is the story of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family’s experiences in Manzanar and how it impacted their lives. One of the significant ideas that was developed in the text is Papa’s deeply conflicted loyalties between Japan and America, which is something that was well developed in the film version of Farewell to Manzanar as well. This idea was developed in the text and film through two major parts of the story: Papa’s interrogation in North Dakota, and the moment when Papa and Woody/Teddy are discussing their opinions …show more content…

The film develops this point as well: Papa gets frustrated about living in the United States longer than the interrogator and he’s still not being allowed to become a citizen. This is shown when Papa asks the interrogator when he was born and was told 1913, which is 9 years after Papa came to the United States. His frustration stemmed from him living in the US for so long but is still accused of helping Japan in the war and being unable to be recognized as a citizen. The interrogation in both the text and the film develops the idea of Papa’s conflicted loyalties because while he did love his birth country, Japan, he had also been living in the United States for the majority of his life, which only resulted in him being questioned for his loyalties to the US. In the text, Papa and Woody were discussing a loyalty oath that was given out to all of the internees. The loyalty oath asked if the internees would be willing to serve in the United States Armed Forces wherever they were ordered and if they would swear allegiance to the US and rid of any loyalty to Japan and its

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