Family Disintegrate Migration Of 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.

Young and not yet attentive to the Americanized way of hate, Jeanne Wakatsuki, youngest daughter of Ko, did not revolt or resist the discrimination her family faced at Manzanar. Forced to live in confining and unsuitable shacks, four persons to a room, the family structure disintegrated while family members grew farther and farther apart. In these camps, privacy did not exist, solitude a scarce thing. These people were thrown into unlivable sheds in the middle of a desert. They were treated as an inferior class, one subordinate to white Americans.

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.

Imagine what it would be like if you and your family. Had to leave your home and live in a camp. In World War ll, life was challenging for Japanese Americans living inside internment camps. It was not necessary for so many reasons. It caused economic, political, and racial problems.

After the restriction from the West coast exclusion zones took effect, Japanese families were moved to assembly centers and subsequently to interment or relocation camps. Many lived in assembly centers for months while waiting to be moved, having to deal with a poorly equipped community and crowded living situations. This is further described by Daniels. “The arrival at the assembly centers was particularly traumatic…Most, if not all, of the sites were overcrowded and not really prepared for human habitation. Toilet and bathing facilities were minimal.” (Pg. 65)8 Various illustrations of these poor housing situations can be seen in a yearbook made to remember the community of the Fresno Assembly Center. (Pgs. 1 & 3)9 Not only did these conditions put Japanese-Americans through a lower standard of living, but they also created distress resulting from multiple resettlements, as many had to be moved to internment camps as soon as they were getting used to life in the assembly centers. The emotions stemming from constant relocation can be seen within the same yearbook, in which the author states, “…we have experienced our primary trials and tribulations of readjusting ourselves to shape a living community out of bare nothing.” (Pg. 2)10 This community built over five months was soon shattered as families

According to the novel Farewell to Manzanar, “I smiled and sat down, suddenly aware of what being of Japanese ancestry was going to be like. I wouldn’t be faced with physical attack, or with overt shows of hatred. Rather, I would be seen as someone foreign, or as someone other than American, or perhaps not be seen at all” (158). After the bombing at Pearl Harbor, the government saw all Japanese-Americans as enemies even though most, if not all of them, had done nothing wrong. They were taken from their homes and send to awful internment camps where they were treated as prisoners. The Japanese-Americans stayed in the camps four years, just because of where they come from. During this time Americans completely turned against the Japanese people living in their country and bombarded the news with anti-Japanese propaganda which showed how much racial discrimination there was, even back in the 1940s. While Farewell to Manzanar explores this concept, there are many questions in which the reader is left with. First, the Japanese-American Internment was fueled by more than war time panic, which reveals the question: what role did prejudice play in the Japanese-American Relocation? Then, there is the question: what modern day connections can you make with this time in American history? Lastly, this story leaves the reader with the question: do you think something like this could happen today? Farewell to Manzanar gives a glimpse of the lives of Japanese-Americans in the 1940s and

Many Japanese Americans were actively being sent to the internment camps against their will by the government. This forced exile likely instilled feelings of fear, confusion and betrayal amongst the Japanese-American people.

How do you think you would have handled being a Japanese living in America during World War Two? I would guess not too well, being taken from your home, put into camps, and you were treated like you were less than the rest of the Americans. Even though a lot of the Japanese living in America during this time had done nothing to support Japan, this still happened to them. It happened to Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, and she tells about it in her book, Farewell to Manzanar. It wasn’t fair, America had other enemies during that time but only the Japanese were sent to camps for that time. The Japanese-American Internment was fueled by more than war time panic. What role did prejudice play in the Japanese-American Relocation? Are there modern day

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?

“He didn't die there, but things finished for him there, whereas for me it was like a birthplace.” In the book “Farewell to Manzanar”, Jeanne Wakatsuki tells the reader about her life in Manzanar. Freedom is very important in America. Though the American Government was afraid of Japanese Americans saboteurs, they were not justified for interning them because they took the freedom of many Japanese people that were actually born in America, they were discriminated because of the way they looked and the American Government ruined the lives of many Japanese Americans.

Shortly after the United States entered into war with Japan, the federal government initiated a policy whereby 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were rounded up and herded into camps, 2/3 of these people were actually United States citizens. They were incarcerated without indictment, trial, or counsel - not because they had committed a crime, but simply because they resembled the enemy. These were similar to concentration camps that the Germans were using for the Jews, though no one was being killed and Japanese Americans were allowed to work within the camps. Not many Americans knew about the camps at that time, and some still don't know today. Like discussed in class, it was an embarrassing moment for this country. The book that was assigned in class, Desert Exile by Yoshiko Uchida, told the story of a family who lived through these horrible times. As we discussed in class

After the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, life in the U.S. had changed. It was the first time in a long time that America was attacked on its homeland. This national security threat was a big shock to the people. The Japanese had to suffer the consequences of their attack. Just as the Germans developed concentration camps for the Jewish during World War II, the Americans set up "relocation" programs better known as internment camps to keep all the Japanese. The reason the Japanese were moved into these camps was because they were suspected of being spies. They were forced to live there for up to four years and were not able to continue with their own lives as they were before while they were living in these camps.

The treatment of memory at the Manzanar historical site specifically shows that the way in which the National Park Service treats historical sites containing foreign heritage will never be able to create a single, shared history for all Americans. One source of tension derivative of this project is the grossly generic incorporation of specific stories within Manzanar in its conversion from purely a site of tragic memory to a site of National memory. The production of this national memory tends to “absorb the meaning of individual and group histories, especially when that group represents an ethnic minority” (Hayashi 55). This absorption ignores specific stories of Japanese immigrant experience at the site, creating a universally incorrect generic representation of the experience and painting an incomplete picture of the events that occurred there. To paint an incomplete picture of a historical site is to contest the memories of the ethnic minorities who were there. When asked about this limited representation of Japanese immigrant history represented at the site, Jerry Rogers, Associate Director of Cultural Resources for the National Park Service, stated