Farewell To Manzanar Essay About Life

She soon got involved in the wrong crowd which resulted in her skipping curfew and smoking cigarettes. Not only was she doing those things but she withdrew from her family as well . A couple months into the camp she soon stopped talking to her brother and mother. These are all signs of depression. If the family weren't placed in these camps they wouldn't have gone through all these struggles. The families relationships between one another and their mental health would have still been intact . The internment camps, in various different ways, affected thousands of Japanese-American families across the nation. From broken homes to low self-esteem, one could say the internment camps were meant to break these Japanese americans down . They made these people feel inhuman which resulted in them acting out of character. This novel gives you insight of just one; of many, families that were affected by this act of war. The girl, for example truly acted out of character . She went from being a well-behaved girl to being in a constant state of rebellion with her new friends she had made in the internment camps. The girl, unlike the boy having to step up and be the man of the house, she decided to mentally withdraw and let the situation take control of her, rather than her taking control of the situation. Putting the girl in the internment camp resulted in her acting out and showing minor signs of depression. The Girl, Boy, Mother and Father suffered in various ways that

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.

But was it for the best or for the worst ? The girl had much insight and could cope with almost anything, a 10 year old with a family and a home, a smart young lady who was unimpeachable, given the options to make her own decision she did so. While she did have her insecurities she would put them aside, and the contempt feeling went away. While in the kitchen, the girl walks in and drinks her water, knowing it was time for her piano lessons, she sits ¨Do i have to? {the woman thought for a moment} No, she said, only if you want to. Tell me i have to.¨[pg.16] When the girl wants her mother to tell her what to do, this symbolizes both the relationship they have and how the girl is still a child that wants reinsurance and is still dependent on her. Though during the time they were in the internment camp many things had changed her. The girl had became both reckless and careless, making impulsive decisions without thinking of the after effects or consequences. When she was in the internment camp, the girl became irresponsible and stop caring about everything “ In the morning she did not return until long after dark. She was always in a rush now...she ate all her meals with her friends. Never with the boy and his mother. She smoked cigarettes.[pg.92]” When the

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.

Some people claim that the Internment camps were worse than Nazi camps but in reality, they were a bit alike but nothing really similar to them. Some of the hardships were bad food and very small living spaces but they were in there for national security, not for extermination. Over two-hundred voluntarily moved in.(Pipes) Families dined together at communal mess halls.(USHistory.org) Some of the internees had the option of serving in the army. One of the strongest units was the 442nd regiment, an all Japanese unit in Europe. So camps never reached the levels of Nazi camps.(USHistory.org)

Throughout Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki and Into the Desert by Nancy Karakane, the characters undergo physical and emotional injustice which shape who they later become. In Farewell to Manzanar we learn about a seven-year old‘s first hand view before during and after camp Manzanar. The Wakatsuki family and Japanese-americans along the west coast were taken from their home and put into relocation camps. In this book we endure her issues in and out of camp and also the injustice that not only does she face, but also many other Japanese-americans.

“Farewell to Manzanar” After the disastrous event of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese families were suspected of contributing to the bombing and betraying the United States. In the book, “Farewell to Manzanar”, the authors, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James Houston, portray damaging influences of WWII and its consequences by discussing Jeanne's life before and after the internment camps. As the internment camps concluded, some rights of the Japanese residents were cut which impacted their lives drastically. When Jeanne revisits Manzanar with her family, she explains how her Papa’s life had ended there, although he lived a few years after coming out of camp.

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.

Out of all ten internment camps in America, Manzanar is the most well-known. The harshness of this camp lead to constant news stories and televised programs displaying events that occurred there such as shootings, strikes, and a constant feeling of uneasiness and unrest throughout the community. There was no such thing as privacy in Manzanar; a luxury taken for granted in today’s society was unknown to those who had to survive in Manzanar. All men and women shared toilets as well as showers and lived in barracks with 200-400 other people in them. Each room had about four people and was furnished with nothing but an oil stove, light bulb, cots, blankets, and mattresses filled with straw. The living conditions were inhumane, with no privacy shacks that were so poorly constructed they could barely hold together. Because it was located in the desert, Manzanar was hot during the day and freezing at night. In order to receive food, prisoners had to wait in long lines in front of the mess hall and were constantly sick from eating spoiled food.

The Manzanar internment camps were very inconvinient for the Japanese- American citizens as the attack on Pearl Harbor was very inconvinient for the U.S. Military. In the end, both fought through the tough times and came out more determined to make things right. I say this because according to the excerpt above, "Of the hundreds of men wounded in the attack, only 10 percent stayed in their hospital beds more than a day. The rest went almost immediately back to their duties." This shows that the Military was very determined to fight for their country and wouldn't let their wounds stop them. This is the quite similar for the Japanese- Americans that were forced to go to camps around the U.S. because the Americans were scared that they would turn against the U.S. during the war against the Japanese. When the Japanese- Americans had the chance to get out of the crowded camps, they went on with their lives, some with schooling, going back to make buisnesses, etc. This shows how the Japanese- Americans still had hope for their country and didn't give up on it because they were treated wrong.

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

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.

Mary Matsuda Gruenewald, Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps

“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.