Farewell To Manzanar By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

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On February 1942, President Roosevelt issued an executive order, which was 9066 stating that Japanese Americans to evacuate their homes and live in an internment camp. This autobiographical called, “Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. Jeanne wanted to write this book to give details on her experience during World War II internment camps. “It is a story, or a web of stories my own, my father’s, my family’s -- tracing a few paths that led up to and away from the experience of the internment” (pg XI). Mrs. Houston had other books beside this particular book, some of the others were called, “Don't Cry, It’s Only Thunder” and “The Legend of Fire Horse Woman”. One of Jeanne Houston quotes is, “ The reason I want …show more content…

She focus mainly on ethnic diversity in the U.S. From my perspective, Jeanne wrote this book, so she can heal emotionally wise. She went through a lot of things when she was young and she also wanted her friends and family to feel where she was coming from. Jeanne and her husband did not want want to write about the live issue that went on during World War II. As she stated in the book “I’m issued out myself”(pg IX). They wanted to express the life inside of one of those camps. Her family stayed three years at the camp. Jeanne did not enjoy living in these camps. The memories of the past still haunted her as she grew older. “Writing it has been a way of coming to terms with the impact these years have had on my entire life” (pg …show more content…

But, in this book Jeanne describes how her dad was in love with the United States. He rejected being Japanese and supported America. “That night Papa burned the flag he had brought with him from Hiroshima thirty five years earlier”(pg 6). Moving from place to place made it hard for The Wakatsuki family to get attached to. The family is then transported to Owens Valley, California, where 10,000 internees. This place was so overcrowded and miserable. The family stayed in Block 16, it was no privacy, gross food, and disgusting toilets. It was nothing like home while staying at the camp. The camp was located in the middle of the desert, so the Japanese will not escape. In California where Jeanne and her family were located there was attitudes towards the Japanese from the Caucasians. “They would swagger and pick on outsiders and persecute anyone who did not speak as they did”(pg 12). Moving the last time, The Wakatsuki family end up in Manzanar. The government ordered the family to move here and it was mandatory. Even, if they were born in America and only had Japanese ancestry. People start leaving camp even before the war ends because the feds are finally stating that their doing illegal things under the Constitution. But they really begin to leave once the United States drops bomb on

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