Internment In Jeanne Wakatsuki's Farewell To Manzanar

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Recommended: Political effects of world war 2

Japanese Americans underwent different experiences during the Second World War, resulting in a series of changes in the lives of families. One such experience is their relocation into camps. Wakatsuki’s farewell to Manzanar gives an account of the experiences of the Wakatsuki family before, during and after the internment of the Japanese Americans. It is a true story of how the internment affected the Wakatsuki family as narrated by Jeanne Wakatsuki. The internment of the Japanese was their relocation into camps after Pearl Harbor was bombed by the naval forces of Japan in 1941. The step was taken on the assumption that it aimed at improving national security. This paper looks at how internment impacted heavily on Papa’s financial status, emotional condition and authority thus revealing how internment had an overall effect on typical Japanese American families. Papa is affected financially to a great extent due to the internment considering the impact that it had on his fishing business. Papa’s financial prospects were high before the internment as revealed by Wakatsuki. She writes that ‘through one of the big canneries, he had made a deal to pay for the Nereid with percentages of each catch, and he was anxious to get it paid off’ (Wakatsuki 4). It is evident that before the internment Papa was a financially stable man with the potential to begin his own fishing business. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor and consequently internment of Japanese Americans, Papa could not be able to go back to the fishing business. In this case, the family’s settlement in internment camps and papa’s eventual imprisonment are events that acted to bring about deterioration in the financial fortunes of papa. Internment in camps meant that the Japanese ... ... middle of paper ... ...es command not only of his family but his alcoholism. His behavior causes Kiyo to take control when it is revealed that he ‘punched papa square in the face’. This incidence suggests papa’s loss of authority over his family and his behavior. In conclusion, events surrounding the internment of Japanese Americans affected members of families in different ways. While papa was financially stable, loving and an authoritative person before the internment, the relocation sees him transformed into a financially unstable, resentful, angry, and a less authoritative and commanding person. Understanding papa’s changes give insights as to how the internment affected the Japanese American families because fathers usually influence their family more than any other person and anything that affects them also affects the whole family as it has been seen in the Wakatsuki family’s case.

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