Analysis Of Farewell To Manzanar

There are many things that happened to Japanese-American immigrants during World War 2 that people in this time period aren’t really familiar with. A story from a Japanese woman, Jeanne Wakatsuki-Houston, who was born and lived in this era, with help from her husband, James D. Houston, explains and sheds some light during the times where internment camps still prevailed. The writing piece titled “Arrival at Manzanar", takes place during her childhood and the Second World War. In the beginning, Jeanne and her family were living a calm and peaceful life in a predominantly white neighborhood, until disaster struck the world and they were forced to move due to escalating tensions between Japanese Orientals and white Americans. At the time, Japanese-Americans, like Jeanne, were forced to live in an internment camp, which is a prison of sorts, due to the war with Japan. The text is being told through a first person point-of-view in which Jeanne herself tells the story through her experiences during the war. In that story, which contains only a part of the original text, much of the setting took place either prior to and during the time she was sent to the internment camps and describes her struggle with it. This story clearly states the importance of family and perseverance which is shown through her use of pathos, definition, and chronological storytelling.

Japanese American families were sent to internment camps located at a desert in Utah almost in less than 24 hours during World War ll. It was supposed to be luxurious and a dream, yet it was the complete opposite. In the book, When the emperor was divine, Julie Otsuka describes each character and their stories through different points of views. She tells their story by recounting each of the main character's emotional experiences while showing the life of Japanese Americans and how they were labeled in others eyes. Otsuka writes not only about the venture of being taken to an internment camp, but how each character changes in the process. Through each person comes a story and why they changed into somewhat the opposite of their

Fighting a war against the oppression and persecution of a people, how hypocritical of the American government to harass and punish those based on their heritage. Magnifying the already existing dilemma of discrimination, the bombing of Pearl Harbor introduced Japanese-Americans to the harsh and unjust treatment they were forced to confront for a lifetime to come. Wakatsuki Ko, after thirty-five years of residence in the United States, was still prevented by law from becoming an American citizen.

Jeannette’s self-reliant behavior is frequently shown through her refusal of help from others. On one trip to retrieve her father from a bar, Jeannette’s father is so drunk that he can no longer walk. Another man offers to drive them home, and

In the novel Farewell to Manzanar, the author Jeanne Watatsuki Houston and James D Houston, they try to convey the theme prejudice. Throughout the novel the Japanese have to face the struggle of being the outgroup. “What had they charged him with? We didn't know that either, until an article appeared the next day in Santa Monica paper, saying he had been arrested for delivering oil to Japanese submarines offshore”(Houston 8). This shows prejudice against the Japanese because Papa has had this job for a while, and they didn't have any problems with it before. They just now start showing prejudice against a the Japanese because of the Pearl Harbor attacks, and are treating the Japanese unfairly. The author also conveys the theme prejudice against

The attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese led to the entry of the United States in the World War II. While the war was going on, the United States decided to put Japanese into camps an effort to get rid of Japanese spies and make sure that nobody had contact with Japan. In Farewell to Manzanar, an autobiography written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, the author shares her experience at camp Manzanar in Ohio Valley, California during the 1940s. The book was published in 1973, about 31 years after Wakatsuki left camp Manzanar.

There are several examples of change in Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's Farewell to Manzanar. Some examples are positive/negative and linked to time. One instance of a positive/negative change is going to Manzanar. Manzanar was a positive change because “...in the case of my older brothers and sisters, we went with a certain amount of relief. They had all heard stories of Japanese homes being attacked, of beatings in the streets of California towns” (Houston 17). It was a negative change because “ ‘Woody, we can’t live like this. Animals live like this.’ “ (Houston 26).

Oppression, defined as, “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” (merriam-webster.com) and prejudice, defined as, “injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights” (merriam-webster.com), both actions that have changed people. Some people are changed for the worse and some are changed for the better, but some choose to share their story. Two people named Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Elie Wiesel did this, they shared their story with the whole world. They both did this by writing autobiographical memoirs, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston wrote Farewell to Manzanar alongside her husband and Elie Wiesel wrote Night, both sharing their experiences during well known events that have happened in the world today. Even though the stories have taken place at different places and different times, the people involved in these event experienced the same things. This does not mean that they were affected in the same way, they were affected differently in their own ways.

There were more problems than just not being able to become a citizen, they were treated differently, worse. When the FBI was searching for anything that might connect the people to Japan, they looked at random objects and used them against the Japanese, it states this happening on page 7, “Most of the houses had radios with a short-wave band and a high aerial on the roof so that wives could make contact with the fishing boats during these long cruises. To the FBI every radio owner was a potential saboteur. The confiscators were often deputies sworn in hastily during the turbulent days right after Pearl Harbor, and these men seemed to be acting out the general panic, seeing sinister possibilities in the most ordinary household items: flashlights, kitchen knives, cameras, lanterns, toy swords.” This was completely ridiculous! They were being very prejudice of the Japanese when they were going through their houses, most Caucasian Americans had these items in their homes, but they weren’t even being questioned, who’s to say they weren’t giving Japan information? Just because they are Japanese does not mean they have any connection with Japan. Jeanne’s father, being Japanese was taken by the FBI for with only a photo as evidence that he is guilty, that photo was of him on his fishing boat with two fifty-gallon drums. They had no way to prove that it was oil in those drums, but they took him anyway, in his interrogation he was questioned about it on page 56,

Wakatsuki-Houston presents an insightful portrayal of the Japanese-American internment camp in California known as Manzanar. She describes how her life changed throughout the experience as she grew from child to young woman. She captivates the reader's attention with intermittent interviews, describing the seemingly constant turmoil that each prisoner faced.

2. What were the specific challenges Gruenewald and other interned Japanese Americans faced in “camp” life? How did individuals and families adapt to these changes?

     The book, Grapes of Wrath, follows the life of the Joad family, who live in Oklahoma during the Depression. The story begins with the return of Tom Joad from prison, where he has spent the last few years. He killed a boy in a bar fight and is now on parole. He is taken by surprise when he returns to Oklahoma only to find that his house is in ruins and his family is not there. He doesn’t know that, while he was gone, the banks forced his family and thousands of others off their land. Tom is accompanied by a former priest, Casey, who searches with Tom for his family. Tom and Casey find the Joad family at Tom’s uncle’s house. The family is preparing to move west to California in hopes that they

Here the young girl describes what happened after the government rounded up Japanese people in the Southwest and put them in camps. She was just a young girl who was placed in one of these internment camps with her family. She explains the struggles of poor living conditions,

Many Japanese Americans have been affected similarly during World War II. These effects have greatly impacted their life styles and also learned to adapt in the internment camps. In a memoir, “from Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, Wakatsuki Houston describes her experience and how it eventually changed her life from being in an internment camp. She and other Japanese Americans were forced to abandon their homes and was transported to an internment camp until World War II was over. A similar short story, “The Bracelet” by Yoshiko Uchida, a character named Ruri and her family along with other Japanese Americans were being evacuated to an internment camp under the assumption that they were being protected. Over the time there, Ruri learns an important lesson from her mother that the things that she treasures the most will always be kept in her heart. Ruri and Jeanne from “The Bracelet” and “from Farewell to Manzanar” are similar in many ways, such as the loss of identity in the internment camps and the removal of their Papa from their homes.

In 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, which later led to a war between the United States and Japan. As a result, more than 110,000 Japanese people that were living in the United States were forced to move into internment camps, because the U.S. government feared that the Japanese Americans would secretly aid Japan’s war effort. In the short story, “The Bracelet” by Yoshida Uchda, the main character, Ruri, was tremendously impacted from being forced into the internment camps, despite the fact that she and her family were loyal Americans. Similarly, in the memoir, “Farewell to Manzanar,” Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston has also experienced this hardship. The experiences and perspectives of both characters in the story are very similar, because they both experienced unwillingly being placed in internment camps and having to endure through the poor living conditions at these internment camps.