Farewell Upon Arriving At Manzanar Analysis

Jeannette is very insecure about her past life of poverty, and although she has now dug herself out of the rut of destitution, her parents’ continued homelessness is always a reminder of

Jeannette, during her childhood, always looked forward to building "The Glass Castle". Her and her father would always talk about how it would be self sufficient in the desert with solar panels and made completely out of glass. This gave Jeannette hope for the future. When Jeannette is an adult, she loses sight of believing in her family and tries to push them out of her life causing her to be more unhappy. But, by the end she came to her senses and went and visited her father while he was sick.

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.

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

World War II was the deadliest worldwide conflict in history. It was estimated to cause over 70 million fatalities.(NEED SOURCE) What many people may not consider though, is how World War II affected people's inner self, not just casualties. In Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, Louis “Louie” Zamperini suffered imprisonment, beatings and is neglected essential/basic human rights. Like so many other American prisoners of war (POWs), Zamperini is dehumanized and his dignity is taken away. Japanese-Americans were also treated equally horribly during World War II. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, Japanese-Americans were forced into internment camps throughout the United States. Miné Okubo was among these citizens who were unjustly accused/judged and mistreated. Zamperini and Okubo alike resisted the attempts in World War II camps to make them feel dehumanized and isolated.

When the Japanese Americans migrated to the United States they were not welcomed with open arms. The Japanese Americans faced many hardships. The biggest hardships they faced were their treatment by the American people as well as by the American government after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Japanese Americans were taken from their homes and placed in internment camps for years with little to no explanation as to why. According to the United States government the Japanese Americans placement in internment camps “were justified on national security grounds” (Brooks), but the truth is Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps because of fear and racial prejudice. This event in history is important because it

In her memoir, Houston manages remaining observational for most of the book. She bides by stating mostly facts from events from her past experiences at Manzanar, now and then stating her thoughts and feelings. She begins her memoir by telling the reader she wrote the memoir to raise awareness for the Japanese internment in the 1940’s era, which she handles gracefully, remaining calm while confronting the trauma from her past. “My faith in God and in the Catholic church slipped several notches at that time. But not my faith in the outside, all such good things could be found.” (Houston, 118). In this quote, Jeanne is saying how even though her experience inside

Jeanne goes into detail and states, “I was striving to be Miss America of 1947, he [her father] was wishing I’d be Miss Hiroshima of 1904” (Wakatsuki 164). This alone, shows how Jeanne was being disloyal to her Japanese side because she was siding herself with the “American” side, the side that had previously betrayed her. She wanted to represent the Americans, not the Japanese. At least, that is how her father saw it. Jeanne was disloyal to her Japanese side because she completely abandoned their traditions, in order to “Americanize” herself. She was not presenting herself like the typical Japanese woman; she wore short skirts and smiled a lot. Her father was not proud of the way she was turning out to be, so he brought those points up to her. When Jeanne was running to be queen at her school, her father was very angry. Jeanne describes how her father said that all the males nominated her because she wore short skirts and that she should start to be more modest. At this point, Jeanne’s father Ko must have realized that Jeanne was abandoning her Japanese roots because he brought up a point. He told her “You can be the queen if you start Odori lessons at the Buddhist church” (Wakatsuki 178). Eventually, Jeanne was no longer able to take lessons because she kept smiling during her performances and in Japan it was not socially accepted for people to smile while performing. Jeanne was being disloyal to her Japanese side because she was not doing anything to conserve it. If she truly cared and embraced her Japanese side, she would have at least put in the effort to not smile during her Odori lessons. Jeanne was confused and stuck between two cultures but she ended up being disloyal to one by completely abandoning it and not meeting any of its

Through her adolescence, Jeanne is ashamed of being Japanese. At Jeanne’s award dinner/ ceremony, her father mortify her, by creating a perceptible array between her and the other families.   “He was unforgivably a foreigner then, foreign to them, foreign to me, foreign to everyone, foreign to everyone but Mama, who sat next to him smiling, with pleased modesty.   Twelve years old at the time, I wanted to scream.   I wanted to slide out of sign under the table and dissolve.” (168) Jeanne wants to be out of sight because she is so humiliated by Papa’s traditional Japanese bow.

Jeannette’s family is not your average American family. Her father was a raging alcoholic who lost too many jobs to count and her mother was an adrenaline addicted painter, who never wanted to work

She would have to fight her trauma, a “fear of Asianfaces.” (Wakatsuki Houston, p. 10 of 209) that was glimpsed once before she was moved to aseat farther from another caucasian child. She suffered this fear for roughly two months since thefellow children were not enthused by her lack of speaking and understanding Japanese. Whenshe finally moved to Manzanar, she had mostly overcome this fear and was able to feel moresecure since the adults around her had arranged for them all to travel together, thus known facesgiving her a sense of calm. She “began to look elsewhere for attention” (Wakatsuki Houston, p.38 of 209) though due to the lack of familial attention since the adults had started workingvarious jobs around the camp. After overcoming her fear of Asians prior to Manzanar, she beganto see the individual adults within her confined world of Manzanar. While not all the adultswould be considered noteworthy, Jeanne’s world had expanded from family and strange adults,to being able to truly “see adults for the first time.” (Wakatsuki Houston, p. 40 of 209). Manzanar was without a school for quite a while which led to the need to seek out andexplore, a desire to establish an order and routine to familiarize oneself with after the upheavalthat was moving. Once able to attend school, establish

At the beginning of the book, Jeanne tells her memory of the days before Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. After that event, America is officially at war with Japan. Jeanne’s family (except her dad) and other Japanese-Americans are evacuated to internment camps. She and her family move to Long Beach. Jeanne starts to associate

During World War II, the American government violated the right of Japanese-America. They were regarded as threat to national security compared to Japan aliens Germany and Italy. They were taking to internment camps, for fearing they might be loyal to Japan and took others to prison. The felling of fear and uncertainty terrified everybody, particularly the Wakatsuki’s family. According to Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D. Houston author of Farewell to Manzanar, “Japan bombed Pearl Harbor “(pg. 6). As a result of fear and precautions “That night Papa burned the flag he had brought with him from Hiroshima thirty-five years earlier. He also “burned a lot of paper, documents and anything….that would connect to Japan. Jeanne’s father was still

Jeanne experienced internal conflict following her release from Manzanar. She begins to feel the conflict of being both Japanese and American. Being in Manzanar helped Jeanne see her fellow Japanese differently than ever before. However, being isolated from her American’s she still hasn’t resolved her confusion in identifying as a Japanese American. After she leaves Manzanar, the shock of ethnic prejudice compels her to try to reclaim her American identity by fitting in, but her continual attempts to conform to white America’s definition of social achievement lead her to neglect the Japanese side of herself. The distance she puts between herself and her Japanese ancestry mirrors the unhealthy isolation from American culture that she experiences

All she wanted to do what fit in. It takes her another twenty years to finally accept who she was and gain all the confidence she would need to live her life. Jeanne talks about her trip that she takes with her family to visit Manzanar years later. She ended up marrying a Caucasian man and having three children. She was even the first person in her family to complete college. When Jeanne and her family arrive at Manzanar, Jeanne is reminded of her childhood. Looking back on what happened, she wouldn't want any of it to change. She “never wants to lose this piece of her.” (pg. 195) While visiting she gets to the area where block 28 was roughly stood and she remembers the day that Papa bought the car to leave camp in. On that day, he comes back with the car and takes the family for a ride. He ends up having a little too much fun and just becoming a wild and reckless driver. Nothing bad happened to them, but it was in this moment that Janie realized she believed in Papa. The wildness she saw in his eyes made her see that the years to come are going to be okay. Jeanne says farewell to Manzanar as she is leaving it with her family on this trip because one, she knows she will probably never see it again and two, farewell is what you say “when you've truly come to know a place.” (pg.195) File:Manzanar Internment Camp.