Comparing Jeanne Wakatsuki's 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.

Japan has a very rich and unique culture, unlike any other culture in the world. The Japanese are close and united, and willing to help each other, to the point that they would even risk their lives for one another. Their culture has certain aspects of it that every nation should have. In his book, John Hersey explores the effects that culture and environment have on an individual’s views and belief through analyzing a stereotypical Japanese man, an Americanized Japanese priest, and a widowed Japanese woman and how they react similarly to the bombing of Hiroshima. The influence of Japanese culture has an astounding impact on the reactions of Hersey’s characters.

The autobiography illustrates personal experiences of discrimination and prejudice while also reporting the political occurrences during the United States’ involvement in World War II. After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States government unleashed unrestrained contempt for the Japanese residing in the nation. The general public followed this train of thought, distrusting the Japanese and treating them like something less than human. In a country of freedom and justice, no coalition stepped up to defend the people who had lived there most of or all of their lives; rather, people took advantage of the Japanese evacuation to take their property and belongings. The government released demeaning propaganda displaying comical Japanese men as monsters and rats, encouraging the public to be vigilant and wary toward anyone of Japanese descent. The abuse of the Japanese during this period was taken a little too lightly, the government apologizing too late and now minor education of the real cruelty expressed toward the nation’s own citizens. Now we see history repeating itself in society, and if we don’t catch the warning signs today, history may just come full

Most people know about the attacks on Pearl Harbor but very few know about how it affected the lives of Japanese-Americans living on the islands. In the novel, Under the Blood-Red Sun, the author Graham Salisbury tells a story from the perspective of Tomikazu Nakaji, a young Japanese-American boy and his struggles with racism and becoming the man of his family. After the attack, the suspicions and biased racism of the non-immigrant Americans is raised, which lead to the wrongful arrests of Tomikazu's father and grandfather. This resulted with him having to get a job, take care of his family, and deal with the constant bullying of his neighbor, Keet Wilson. In the end, he manages to maintain the tasks his father had assigned him with the help of his friends. This book showed me the importance of friendship, honor, and persistence.

War can be loud and visible or quiet and remote. It affects the individual and entire societies, the soldier, and the civilian. Both U.S. prisoners of war in Japan and Japanese-American citizens in the United States during WWII undergo efforts to make them “invisible.” Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken hero, Louie Zamperini, like so many other POWs, is imprisoned, beaten, and denied basic human rights in POW camps throughout Japan. Miné Okubo, a U.S. citizen by birth, is removed from society and interned in a “protective custody” camp for Japanese-American citizens. She is one of the many Japanese-Americans who were interned for the duration of the war. Louie Zamperini, as a POW in Japan, and Miné Okubo, as a Japanese-American Internee both experience efforts to make them “invisible” through dehumanization and isolation in the camps of WWII, and both resist these efforts.

Imagine living in a country that you truly love and then being discriminated and questioned just because of your race. How insulted would you feel if your own country’s government interrogated and accused you of being disloyal? Nowadays, loyalty is an important quality that everyone wants to possess, so many people do whatever is possible in order to prove themselves. Loyalty shows a lot about a person’s character and their motives; it is truly a reflection of what type of person we are. In Farewell to Manzanar written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston she talks about the experience that she had while living in an internment camp and how it really affected her and the way her family lived. The internment camp caused many problems for the Wakatsuki

George Takei, a Japanese-American actor and activist, discusses why he loves the country that was once unfaithful to him in his TEDTalk at Kyoto, Japan on June 2014. February 1942, Japanese-Americans were forced to stay in concentration camps by American soldiers ordering them out of their homes (Takei, 2014). George Takei and his family were once of many Japanese-American families that were sent off to the camps. After the war, everything was taken away from them, they had to build themselves up again from the beginning. Many young Japanese-Americans wanted to volunteer to fight for their country, when Pearl Harbour was bombed, but they were denied of service and categorized as the “enemy” (Takei, 2014). But when the government realized they

“We were sitting on a bus-stop bench in Long Beach when an old, embittered woman stopped and said, why don’t all you dirty Japs go back to Japan! She spit at us and passed on. We said nothing at the time. After she stalked off down the sidewalk we did not look at each other.”-Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. Experiencing discrimination proved normal for numerous East Asian descendants living in the U.S during World War 2. Author of the book Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston lived as the victim of an immoral and unfair circumstance forced upon by the “land of the free” back in March 1942. Houston and her family are among the thousand East Asian’s forced into internment camps on March 25th, 1942.

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.

The Japanese-American author, Julie Otsuka, wrote the book When the Emperor was Divine. She shares her relative and all Japanese Americans life story while suffering during World War II, in internment camps. She shares with us how her family lived before, during, and after the war. She also shares how the government took away six years of Japanese-American lives, falsely accusing them of helping the enemy. She explains in great detail their lives during the internment camp, the barbed wired fences, the armed guards, and the harsh temperatures. When they returned home from the war they did not know what to believe anymore. Either the Americans, which imprisoned them falsely, or the emperor who they have been told constantly not to believe, for the past six years imprisoned. Japanese-Americans endured a great setback, because of what they experienced being locked away by their own government.

Throughout Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston’s autobiography, Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne experiences the struggles of Japanese-Americans during the World War II. After the Pearl Harbor bombing, Japanese-Americans were forced to be sent to an incarceration camp often through isolated deserts and swamps. They were sent to the camp because they looked like the enemy. Their bravery and fighting for what they believed in were their version of social justice because Japanese-Americans wanted an equal opportunity just like the Caucasians. The book on what Japanese-Americans went through at that time resembles with this modern day Trump’s immigration law on Muslims. The Japanese-Americans and Muslims both face discrimination, separation from their family, and institutionalized injustice.

In elementary schools children were taught to “duck and cover.” There was enormous propaganda of war floating around. It was something everyone was fearful of, even the Japanese. There whole nation was fearful of what was next especially Mary,” These increasing restrictions created a psychological pall as well as a general fear about what the government would do to us,” (30). Mary is a great example of a young Japanese American girl who was an American citizen but still had to go through her daily life questioning her freedom in her own country. Once she was brought to the interment camp she was certain that her freedom did not exist even though she has proven herself as a perfect citizen, “The injustice of it all haunted me: They had declared me guilty without giving me a chance to prove I had been a loyal and patriotic citizen— but loyalty to the government meant betrayal of myself,” (87). Her mother enforced into her brain to continue to be loyal to the United States, “We’ve been incredibly blessed with so many things to make us comfortable and happy here. Now tomorrow we will begin a new experience. Who knows what that will be like but let us remember all the blessings that we’ve enjoyed here,” (36). Mary is just one, young example of the thousands that had to live their lives in a country that promises nothing but freedom, in a life full of

In an award winning fictitious novel, Julie Asuka explores the lives of some Japanese immigrants living in the Southern part of America during the Second World War. In about four months following the Pearl Habour, Japanese Americans received instructions through signs all over the streets of the Unites States of America, to report to incarceration camps during the war period.1The writer describes this situation as a form of alienation and oppression through the use of one family. This family’s nightmare is explored from various points of view which ultimately lead to an experience that alters their lives forever . This order led to the splitting of the family, from when the mother receives an evacuation letter, followed by the long train journey experience of the daughter, the son living in the desert military camp, the return home of the family members, as well as the release and homecoming of their father from a bitter four year captivity. The novel tells of a forgotten ancient American wartime episode from history.

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.

As a Nisei (second generation Japanese American), Roger was born in Seattle, Washington in 1939, and when at three years of age, America began to undergo the devastating aftermath of Pearl Harbor his family was also “relocated” to Camp Minidoka in Southern Idaho. Evidential trauma from this experience can be revealed in Shimomura’s “Minidoka On My Mind” series of works, his most earnest and heartfelt line of works. These works served as a personal memoir or statement that allowed Shimomura to account early childhood experiences involving the immoral incarceration of those with Japanese heritage during WWII, with Executive Order #9066. After the act was signed by president Franklin D. Roosevelt, over 110,000 (over