Farewell to Manzanar Author: James D. Houston | Language: English | ISBN:
B00DC3VCV8 | Format: EPUB
Farewell to Manzanar Description
During World War II a community called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese American internees. One of the first families to arrive was the Wakatsukis, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. For Jeanne Wakatsuki, a seven-year-old child, Manzanar became a way of life in which she struggled and adapted, observed and grew. For her father it was essentially the end of his life.
At age thirty-seven, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was. She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and great resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Written with her husband, Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar.
Farewell to Manzanar has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. Last year the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the twentieth century’s 100 best nonfiction books from west of the Rockies.
- File Size: 261 KB
- Print Length: 208 pages
- Publisher: HMH Books for Young Readers (June 18, 2013)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00DC3VCV8
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #56,122 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #7
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Biographies > Multicultural - #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > History > United States > 1900s - #17
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
- #7
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Biographies > Multicultural - #10
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > History > United States > 1900s - #17
in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Japanese
I have been thinking about this book more and more ever since I saw the rascist, effusive film "Snow Falling on Cedars". My big gripe with that film was that it made the Japanese Americans look so weak and helpless without white people to rescue them from their predicament.
For those of you who disagreed with my review of that film, I strongly urge you to read (or re-read) "Farwell to Manzanar". This is a frank, accurate, and at times heart-breaking, true story of a Japanese family's internment in the camps. The narrative contains several different threads including:
1. The legal and economic injustice done to the author's family and thousands of other Japanese Americans.
2. The day to day life and survival requirements in the camps.
3. The difficulty of coping with generational differences within an interned Japanese-American family.
4. The difficulties and predjudices that Japanese Americans had to overcome in order to rebuild their lives after they were released.
Ms. Wakatsuki-Houston's memoir is simple and compelling. She describes her childhood experiences from the objective and mature perspective of an adult, a wife, and a mother. But despite the passage of time her narrative still conveys a great deal of pain and difficulty in coming to terms with her childhood internment at Manzanar.
The most interesting part of the book for me was how the author's family attempted to rebuild their lives after the U.S. government robbed and humiliated them. The father immediately started a farming venture whose success was only undermined by unsually adverse environmental conditions. One of the sons served in the military and then resumed the family's fishing business.
Jeanne is only seven years old and living in California when Pearl Harbor is attacked. Her parents were from Japan but had been living in the United States for most of their lives. Jeanne and her eight older siblings had all been born in this country and raised as English-speaking Americans. Jeanne's father is now a fisherman who owns two of his own fishing boats. Their family is moderately successful.
All of their success and security ends when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. All of a sudden, people begin looking at Japanes Americans, who are not allowed to become citizens, as the enemy. The American government is terrified that people of Japanese background will pass secrets to the Japanese who are attacking us, so the government takes rights away from anyone who has Japanese blood.
Jeanne's family is considered a particular danger, because they live on the west coast and they fish. They are no longer allowed to fish. Their boats are confiscated. They are then sent to Manzanar, a relocation camp further inland, where thousands of Japanese Americans are sent to live in a fenced-in area until the war is over.
When they first arrive at Manzanar, things are pretty bad. The barracks have been hastily constructed and do not do much to keep out the cold or the dust swirling all around. They are not large enough for families to live comfortably. The food that is served is almost inedible, because the people planning the meals have no concept of what Japanese people eat. Worst of all, though, is the knowledge of the people living there that their government doesn't trust them.
Jeanne and her family are forced to live at this camp for years.
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