The beginning of the book opens up with a flashback of the day Papa gets taken of the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The narrator is a girl name Jeanne and has other siblings, also. She starts to run through some memories of the tradition she had of standing on the wharf with her mother watching her father sat out on another fishing trip. Like any other time she watches until the boats clear the horizon but on this day Papa’s boat and the rest of the fleet stop short of the horizon. This being because Japanese planes just bombed Pearl Harbor so Papa and the rest had to turn around and sail back to the shore. Papa starts to burn all of his Japanese artifacts he got when he was based out of Hiroshima because he knows that being of the
The first reading I chose was John Garcia. He experienced the war at the age of sixteen- year- old Hawaiian. He worked as a pipe fitter apprentice at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. In the beginning of the reading Garcia talks about his experience with Pearl Harbor when the war started with the Japanese. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and since Garcia worked for them he was to report to work immediately. He refused to obey orders fearing his life was on the line. But luckily the charges were dropped due to being 16 and not a service personnel. During that time, he worked on bringing out sailors’ bodies out of the water and fixing the ships. After Pearl harbor his job was to rescue people from the tragic bombing that occurred. That day he spent pulling people out of the water. He rescued dead and alive sailors. Among the many war casuals, he expected some shell casings that blew up the neighborhood he lived in which included his girlfriend’s house. His girlfriends house was bombed by an American shell which killed her. Garcia then wrote a letter to President Roosevelt, to get the okay to join combat. After writing the letter to the President a second time he did not follow the chain of commands and was then ordered to wash dishes for 30 days. In combat he experienced lots of deaths and these deaths affected his conscious. Certain deaths affected him, and he began to drink lots whiskey to be able to shoot the Japanese to numb his feelings. Garcia experienced
The Wakatsukis are a Japanese family with ten children, the youngest of who is Jeanne; she is the narrator and author of the story. In December 1941, the Wakatsukis are living near Long Beach, California. Mr. and Mrs. Wakatsuki are immigrants; they have come to the United States from Japan, searching for the American Dream. Jeanne's father and brothers man a fishing boat called The Nereid and work for the canneries on the coast. On December 7th, Jeanne stands on shore with the other Wakatsuki females; they all wave good-bye to the Wakatsuki men as they set out to sea. As the women watch the Nereid travel further away, it suddenly turns and heads back to shore. Jeanne and the others are confused about the strange return until a cannery worker on the docks runs toward them; he delivers the news that Japan has just bombed Pearl Harbor in a deadly surprise attack. Jeanne's father is immediately frightened that his ties to Japan will cause him trouble; he goes home and burns the flag he had brought from Hiroshima, as well as all documents that might tie him to Japan. The family then relocates to the home of their eldest son, Woody, who lives on Terminal Island. After two weeks, Ko Wakatsuki, Jeanne's father, is arrested and interrogated. Later the family learns that he has been taken into custody and falsely charged with supplying oil to Japanese submarines offshore.
Finally, it happened. Sorry, his mother, grandmother, sister, and teacher Tara, heard ships. The voices on the ships were not that of the conquering Japanese, though. The voices were of Americans. They ran to the shore to greet the Americans. They thought of this to be the end of the pain the island had under the Japanese.
The entire book will be told to us through a compilation of letters addressed to Isabel ( who we assume is Mims Mothers sister Isabel) As we get to know our 16 year old heroine Mim (Mary Iris Malone) who will jump on a Greyhound bus after over hearing a conversation in the principals office between the principal, her father and her step mother (of whom Mim is not precisely fond of) in which Mim understands her mother is sick. Without giving it a second thought Mim decides she must get to her mother who lives in Cleveland, before or on Memorial Day (as this was their special day).
Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, describes the life of Jeanne and her family during World War II. During this time Jeanne was a young girl who could not comprehend what was occurring in her life. Jeanne and her family were forced to move to Manzanar due to government orders after the bombing of pearl harbor. After the bombing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order, that relocated all Japanese-Americans to internment camps. In the camps were Jeanne and her family were forced to live, her and her family faced difficult living conditions, conflict with other, riots, cultural conflict and racial issues.
Julie Otsuka’s story, “When the Emperor was Divine,” illustrates what calamities an unnamed Japanese American family lived through during, and after being sent to an internment camp by the American government. The story takes place after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, when America was engulfed in a rise of “yellow peril” emitting a widespread fear of Japanese people across the country. Every chapter is see through the eyes of a different family member and gives the readers details about how differently each character was affected by the events that unfolded around them. Rather than explaining what the characters felt, Otsuka used symbolism to enumerate the hidden themes within the story, such as with the use of the woman’s rosebush. In the fourth chapter, Otsuka uses the rosebush as a symbol of the family’s former lives, and how that freedom was stolen from them, never to be found again.
The book begins with an introduction. In the introduction it tells about James Quale Burden (Jim Burden) and how the story came to be written. The introduction is written by a woman who is an old friend to Jim and who grew up in the same Nebraska town as he did. They are both now living in New York where Jim is a successful lawyer.
Wakatsuki describes Papa as “a poster, a braggart, and a tyrant”. But he held on to his self-respect” (58). He was “absurdly proud” (54) that he went to the law school, even though he never finished. Prior to the evacuation and internment, his self-esteem was not destroyed. When “Papa was taken to the prison, he did not let the deputies push him out the door, instead he led them” (8).
Prange, Gordon W. At Dawn We Slept - The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor. New York, NY: Penguin Books,
The mother, wife, and strong soul that is Juana in The Pearl by John Steinbeck, draws us in with her unique personality. Juana lives in a brush house by the sea, with her husband, Kino, and infant son, Coyotito, poor but content. Juana is wise, motherly, and silently strong because of her love for her family.
This whole book contained stories from when the Tull family was young to when Pearl died and the children had kids of their own. Pearl started out in the book as a 30 year old woman who was married to Beck Tull, a young salesman who moved his family to many different places for his job. They had three children together, Cody, Ezra, and Jenny. Beck left his family when his children were still young to be able to travel more for his job. Pearl had to learn to raise three children on her own while also working everyday because they did not live in affluence. She became very bitter and often verbally abused her kids. Cody was the oldest son who was known for getting into trouble. He loved winning, so would cheat when he played games with his family and friends. He was jealous of his brother and his mother’s relationship because they were very close. Cody was always messing with his brother and stealing his items to make him mad because he felt enmity towards him. Once they grew up, his brother, Ezra, had fallen in love with a girl but Cody was jealous so he stole the girl and married her instead. Ezra was the capricious middle child, also his mother’s favorite. He was clumsy and quite an awkward child. His favorite thing to do was play songs on his whistle and mind his own business by eschewing his peers. He started working at a restaurant when he grew up until the owner passed it down to him. He later renamed that restaurant The Homesick Restaurant. Jenny was tenuous, the youngest child, and also the only girl. Her mother picked on her a lot because she would not help with cooking or cleaning like she was supposed to. She always got good grades and spent her time studying. Jenny grew up and remarried three times, then ended up with a man who had six kids. This family changed quite a bit throughout this book by the time their mother was hospitalized when she was 80. Ezra stayed with Pearl in the
In addition, the Pearl Harbor bombings also become a component in the story. Aftermath from the bombing effect Japanese citizens in numerous ways. The whites blame all Japanese in America for the bombing and discriminate against them. Some even get arrested for no
After wavering back and forth on potential subjects, I decided on my Papa Cinfio, and uncovered inspiration behind my choice as I went along. Most significantly, Papa always encouraged my art, no matter the type, drawing, painting, photography, etc., but with writing in particular, he saw my potential. He often read my writing and truly saw though the technicolor kaleidoscopes of perception I mentioned. Countless times I remember Papa asking me what was on my mind, wanting to know what universe my thoughts were drifting into. With writing, his interest in my thinking was fulfilled. Being that he passed away only a little less than a month before my high school graduation, writing about him, and for him, seemed to fit well.
The Pearl written by John Steinbeck is a parable, a story that teaches a moral lesson. This novel is centered on a poor Indian family, who live in a brush hut along the Gulf of Mexico and by the village of La Paz. The family consists of: Kino, a fisherman and pearl diver, his wife Juana, and their infant son Coyotito. One day while diving, Kino discovers a great pearl that he calls, “the pearl of the world” (22). The theme of a literary work is defined as the central idea, concern or purpose about life that a writer wishes to convey. There may be several themes identified in a literary work; however, in John Steinbeck’s novel The Pearl the author uses the pearl to develop one of the most essential universal themes in literature, that of humanity’s struggle with violence.
The Pearl plays an important role in redefining American literature for this time period, and it shows problems that remained an issue for a long time. There were social and cultural inequalities displayed throughout this novel that described the living conditions of the Mexicans around the 1940s. It can also show how hard it is to chase dreams when they are motivated by greed, and can ultimately lead to destruction.