Loss Of Identity In Farewell To Manzanar

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.

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.

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.

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

Jeanne is riding in the first trip to their new home. The trip is quite wild and disorderly due to Papa’s state of drunkenness. When they reach their destination, the family is in a state of apprehensiveness. They fear the worst possible situation. Luckily, everything remains normal, the people are indifferent to them. Unfortunately, it

Dawn: I thoroughly enjoyed Farewell to Manzanar and found Jeanne’s character very interesting. I admire the way that she handles prejudice with maturity but also found it touching and sad when she blames herself for being different. One of my favorite lines in the book is when Jeanne’s father says, “When your mother and your father are having a fight, do you want them to kill each other? Or do you just want them to stop fighting?” I found this line very well written and it has such a deeper meaning if you really think about it. It

In the autobiographical excerpt from "Nisei Daughter" by Monica Sone called "Camp Harmony" and the novel Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, both of the main characters and their families are relocated to a Japanese internment camp in the western United States after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They experience extreme hardships while being interned at the camps due to their race, however, although faced with such austerity, the Japanese-American families are able to overcome it through years of suffering. Between the two autobiographies, Farewell to Manzanar and “Camp Harmony,” there are various similarities and differences sharing the pain and joy of living in these internment camps.

Oppression, defined as, “unjust or cruel exercise of authority or power” (merriam-webster.com) and prejudice, defined as, “injury or damage resulting from some judgment or action of another in disregard of one's rights” (merriam-webster.com), both actions that have changed people. Some people are changed for the worse and some are changed for the better, but some choose to share their story. Two people named Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and Elie Wiesel did this, they shared their story with the whole world. They both did this by writing autobiographical memoirs, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston wrote Farewell to Manzanar alongside her husband and Elie Wiesel wrote Night, both sharing their experiences during well known events that have happened in the world today. Even though the stories have taken place at different places and different times, the people involved in these event experienced the same things. This does not mean that they were affected in the same way, they were affected differently in their own ways.

In her novel When the Emperor Was Divine, author Julie Otsuka presents the long-lasting effects that isolation and alienation have on a person’s self- image and identity. During WWII, Japanese-Americans living in the United States were forced to move to isolated and horrific internment camps. The US government ensured they were separated from the rest of the country. This even included their own families. When the Japanese-Americans were allowed to return home after the war, the result of the isolation they experienced created irreversible damage. They continued to experience alienation, often making it impossible for them to recover emotionally, mentally and financially. Otsuka uses characterization to bring to life the traumas of the war and the effects it had on her characters, the girl, her mother and her father.

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

What does Jeanne say the camp became as the months turned into years? Explain what she meant by this.

    Many people see the world and others differently. Just like the two sisters in “Everyday Use”, the two sisters in “Two Ways to Belong in America”, and the father in the letter/short essay “An Indian Father's Plea”. All these people have different past and things they’re going through. The two sisters in “Two Ways To Belong In America” both have their different stories from their past, one likes America the other does not because they betrayed her. Next, the father from “An Indian Father’s Plea” sees America differently because the school was labeled his kid a “slow learner” which made him upset. In addition, the two sisters from “ Everyday Use” argue about a quilt in which they both view differently

“Three years of wartime propaganda—racist headlines, atrocity movies, hate slogans, and fright-mask posters—had turned the Japanese face into something despicable and grotesque.” Since Jeanne entered sixth grade after resettling, she has had to endure multiple obstacles throughout school. “ ‘They're [the teachers are] trying to stuff the ballot box,’ he whispered loudly. ‘They're fudging on the tally. They're afraid to have a Japanese girl be queen. They've never had one before. They're afraid of what some of the parents will say.’ ” and “The band teacher knew I had more experience than anyone else competing that year. He told me so. But he was afraid to use me. He had to go speak to the board about it, and to some of the parents, to see if it was allowable for an Oriental to represent the high school in such a visible way.” are both great examples of how teachers prevented Jeanne from special opportunities. Their fear of the PTA's opinion on her race disregarded what mattered: her

In the “Two Kinds” story the author illustrates the struggle between her American cultural identity, and her mother’s Chinese culture, as like the characters in the story. The author shows what is the struggle and the conflict that cultural differences creates. The author also uses symbolism, to address the conflicts between the characters in the story.