Disgrace from Manzanar Farewell to Manzanar is a non-fiction novel co-written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. This book is about Jeanne’s experience with the Japanese internment camp she was sent to during WWII for being a Japanese-American. Jeanne’s whole family was sent to camp Manzanar after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Jeanne’s father, Papa, was a very traditional, prideful, Japanese man with many failures in his life. It was much easier for Papa to come to terms with his family’s descent from the samurai class than it was to do so with his imprisonment at Manzanar. For Papa’s family’s descent from the samurai class, he only had to muddle through no longer being as important; unlike at Manzanar, where his whole life
Night is an account of a young Jewish boy sent to a concentration camp with the rest of his family, with no idea of what is to come. Farewell to Manzanar is about a young Japanese-American girl who was sent to an internment camp after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Both are stripped of their freedom and their rights without any say and are forced to live in a camp and give up everything they own. In Farewell to Manzanar Jeanne described this scene as such, “About all he [her father] had left at this point was his tremendous dignity.and he would not let those deputies push him out the door. He led them.”
In the ancient Japanese culture, one great aspect was on how they emphasized on the intrinsic themes of loyalty and honor. They had fierce warriors known as samurai’s. A samurai was a traditional warrior who would protect and be loyal to their masters no matter what. They were known to be skilled soldiers, benevolent men, self-sacrifice, sense of shame, along with other major characteristics that embodied them as a samurai. While this class of warrior no longer exist today, the remembrance of a samurai is present in the minds of the characters in the novel, The Samurai’s Garden by Gail Tsukiyama. Tsukiyama does a fascinating piece of work by really elaborating and describing the great attributes that Matsu possess of a true samurai. In the
Farewell to Manzanar Beginning in March of 1942, in the midst of World War II, over 100,000 Japanese-Americans were forcefully removed from their homes and ordered to relocate to several of what the United States has euphemistically labeled “internment camps.” In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston describes in frightening detail her family’s experience of confinement for three and a half years during the war. In efforts to cope with the mortification and dehumanization and the boredom they were facing, the Wakatsukis and other Japanese-Americans participated in a wide range of activities. The children, before a structured school system was organized, generally played sports or made trouble; some adults worked for extremely meager wages, while others refused and had hobbies, and others involved themselves in more self-destructive activities. The smaller children that were confined to their families seemed to be generally unaware of the hardships they were facing.
“It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how you life’s story will develop” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf). Most people can deal with difficulties, but their reactions to the hardships are different. Only some people can manage their problems. We should try to manage our behaviors in tough situations. If we can deal with our situations, we can overcome difficulties easily. In the story of Farewell to Manzanar written by Jeanne Wakatsuki, the story shows how war can change humans, their life, and their ranks. Although all of the characters of her book face the same problems due to the war and the camps they had to live in, they responded to those situations differently. All of them presented
Often, we find ourselves facing dramatic events in our lives that force us to re-evaluate and redefine ourselves. Such extraordinary circumstances try to crush the heart of the human nature in us. It is at that time, like a carbon under pressure, the humanity in us either shatters apart exposing our primal nature, or transforms into a strong, crystal-clear brilliant of compassion and self sacrifice. The books Night written by Elie Wiesel and Hiroshima written by John Hersey illustrate how the usual lifestyle might un-expectantly change, and how these changes could affect the human within us. Both books display how lives of civilians were interrupted by the World War II, what devastations these people had to undergo, and how the horrific circumstances of war were sometimes able to bring out the best in ordinary people.
The men stationed in the Pacific Theatre of World War II faced many challenges and hardships. The fighting that occurred with the Japanese far surpassed the level of brutality in the European theatre. Some American military units faced relentless fighting throughout the entire war, while other units waited for the entire war for orders to deploy into combat, and never actually saw any action. Only a few stories surrounding both ends of the spectrum of men in the Pacific Theatre exist, and even a fewer number do the men and women that served during that time justice. One of these authors who captured the nature of life during World War II in the Pacific Theatre, James Michener, did so in the novel Tales of the South Pacific. Michener not only offers an in-depth perspective of life during the time, but also brings up key themes of issues that existed during that period. He introduced a new outlook on the South Pacific during World War II, showing that a variety of people scattered around the Pacific joined for the common goal of a successful military operation. The primary purpose for this collection of tales from around the South Pacific focused on telling the tale of everyone who spent the war there. Michener used varying points of view within the plot line to strengthen this point. Within the main focus he brings up three themes: the first being of camaraderie and fellowship, the second the issues of power struggle, and finally racism in World War II. Michener utilizes diction to help characterize individuals to help literary convey these three themes. James Albert Michener brings up the issues of racism and power struggle in the South Pacific, while portraying the men that lived there during that period and the fellowship they s...
The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, tells her family’s true story of how they struggled to not only survive, but thrive in forced detention during World War II. She was seven years old when the war started with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1942. Her life dramatically changed when her and her family were taken from their home and sent to live at the Manzanar internment camp. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, they had to adjust to their new life living behind barbed wire. Obviously, as a young child, Jeanne did not fully understand why they had to move, and she was not fully aware of the events happening outside the camp. However, in the beginning, every Japanese American had questions. They wondered why they had to leave. Now, as an adult, she recounts the three years she spent at Manzanar and shares how her family attempted to survive. The conflict of ethnicities affected Jeanne and her family’s life to a great extent.
Both Jeanne Houston and Yoshika Uchida wrote about their different experiences in their situation in these internment camps during WWII and how they were forced to leave their homes and to go to these camps. In Yoshika Uchida's story, The Bracelet, Uchida writes about Ruri and her experiences in the internment camps and how it was different from what she expected, and also what she learns from this situation. However, in Jeanne Watkatsuki Houston's story, Farewell to Manzanar, she writes about her and her family's experience at the camp and how they persevere through this journey. These stories are different because each story holds a different perspective on their experience and also a different thought towards this situation even though they experienced the same historical event.
Joy Kogawa and Tim O’Brien: two authors that have wielded their mastery of the English language to yield literary masterpieces that reflect not only their own struggles, but the hardships of multitudes around them. In her acclaimed Obasan, Joy Kogawa illustrates the intense discrimination that was faced by Japanese-Canadians during World War 2, and provides many reflective anecdotes to give the reader some insight on her personal situation. Tim O’Brien accomplishes basically the same goal in The Things They Carried by giving the reader many brief stories about his time in the Vietnam War. These two books- though incredibly different on the surface - share a plethora of themes and symbology, as well as many similar events. They do not, however, emphasize or present these ideas in the same way. Each of these authors has a unique way of incorporating their own themes or values into their writing, which gives the reader an entirely different view of what may be happening.
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”.
In Eliezer Wiesel’s novel “Night”, it depicts the life of a father and son going through the concentration camp of World War II. Both Eliezer and his father are taken from their home, where they would experience inhuman and harsh conditions in the camps. The harsh conditions cause Eliezer and his father’s relationship to change. During their time in the camps, Eliezer Wiesel and his father experience a reversal of their roles.
Kunio Maekawa was born in 1905 in the city of Niigata, Japan (Maekawa, 1984). Maekawa’s parents were decedents of samurai origins, relatives from his mother’s side were retainers of the Tsugaru clan of Hirosaki (Maekawa, 1984). His father’s side of the family were retainers of the powerful Ii clan of Omi (Maekawa, 1984). In the beginning of the Meiji Restoration the samurai families had their earnings taken away and their...
“Papa brought his still with him when we moved. He set it up behind the door, where he continued to brew his own sake and brandy”. (97). Papa’s character changed in a positive way, after one year the wakatasuki’s family moved to the better barracks. He start to garden the trees. And he built a small farm and he drunk less than before but his still drink alcohol, but he was busy and most of the time he had been outside of barrack and he did garden. Their life was easier this explain he start to change be positive (chapter
The three men in this novel represent the people who abandoned their homeland in search for a better life. This is what happens to people who abandon their homeland, their death is a shameful and undignified death not like the people who die defending their country where they are honored and looked up to. Abul Khaizuran represents the leader who betrays his people by promising them to fulfill their dreams but instead he led them to their death and he only cared to fulfill his personal needs. The road represents the struggle of life the characters go through to reach their dreams and the desert represents the obstacles that keep them for achieving the dreams. The three men had to knock to be saved but the never knocked, the Palestinians need to raise their voice in order to be heard just like knocking on the tank.
The destruction of Papa’s self-esteem is one effect of the evacuation and internment. Before the evacuation and internment, Papa was proud; he had a self-important attitude yet he was dignified. Wakatsuki describes Papa as “a poser, a braggart, and a tyrant. But he had 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 take to the prison, he did not let the deputies push him out the door, instead he led them” (8). This manner is clearly contrasted after the evacuation and internment. Papa’s self-esteem no longer existed. Papa drunk heavily inside the barracks, “day after day he would sip his rice wine or his apricot brandy, sip till he was blind drunk and passed out” (65). His pride was diminishing like a vapor of alcohol. He became abusive towards Mama, “He yelled and shook his fists and with his very threats forced her across the cluttered room until she collided with one of the steel bed frames and fell back onto a mattress” (71). Papa's dignity had disappeared; he had become a drunk and an abusive man. The effects of the evacuation and internment contributed to the destruction of his self-esteem.