From Farewell To Manzanau, By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

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

In the story of Japanese imprisonment, Farewell to Manzanar, readers follow a young American girl, Jeanne, as she grows up in an internment camp during World War II. Despite being American, Jeanne and other people of Japanese descent are continually attacked due to the racism bred by the American government. They attack her and these people in a variety of forms such as isolation, disrespect, and avoidance.

Disregarding the past years spent at an internment camp, the years that disassembled her family into a blur of oblivion, Jeanne chose to familiarize herself with the American way. Although forbidden U.S. citizenship, she made numerous attempts to Americanize herself, opting for such standings as Girl Scout, baton leader, Homecoming Queen. However competent and capable this young woman was, she was repeatedly denied because of her race, her appearance, her Japanese heritage

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.

Japanese internee camps in America caused the Japanese-Americans to feel invisible to the outside world, like mIne Okubo, “In Tanforan, Mine experienced isolation from the outside world and had lack of privacy. ”(The Life of Mine Okubo) She did nothing wrong, but was sent here to feel invisible and have a huge lack of privacy. Louie and other POWs felt alone and helpless and couldn’t do anything. They were silent and thinking about if they could survive in the camps.

to be sent to internment camps. In one way, it is not fair to the

The Train to Crystal City, written by Jan Jarboe Russell, is a book about internment camps that were constructed in the United States during WWII to house people the U.S. government classified as “enemy aliens”. For years, these camps were home to people of various nationalities, most notably those of Japanese, German, and Italian descent. A majority of the book follows the experiences and lives of several families that were interned at these internment camps during the war.

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.

From 1937 to the end of world war 2 (WWII), Japan killed over 3,000,000 Prisoners of war(POWs). Some POWs including Louie Zamperini had escaped death from these camps. Back in America, Japanese-Americans, like Jeanne Wakatsuki had to face racial discrimination in the Japanese internment camps. This all happened because on December 7, 1941 Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Louie Zamperini from Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, is an Olympic running who joined the Air Force after WWII broke out. Jeanne Wakatsuki from Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, is a Japanese-American that lives in America during WWII. Louie Zamperini and Jeanne Wakatsuki’s experiences from being a POW are very similar yet different in their involvement throughout the war, their resilience during the war, and their struggles after the war.

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.

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.

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

The United States of America a nation known for allowing freedom, equality, justice, and most of all a chance for immigrants to attain the American dream. However, that “America” was hardly recognizable during the 1940’s when President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ordering 120,000 Japanese Americans to be relocated to internment camps. As for the aftermath, little is known beyond the historical documents and stories from those affected. Through John Okada’s novel, No-No Boy, a closer picture of the aftermath of the internment is shown through the events of the protagonist, Ichiro. It provides a more human perspective that is filled with emotions and connections that are unattainable from an ordinary historical document.