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I decided to read, Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James
D. Houston. This book is about the Japanese internment camps that were set up in
America during World War II, and how it affected this particular family. It
tells the story of the separation of the family members, hardships, and hatred
that they had to live with during this time period. It also helps to open our
eyes to the irony of the whole situation, and how our government can contradict
themselves over some of the issues we were fighting for. The book tells the
story from Jeanne Wakatsuki, the main character, point of view, and how she and
her family struggled to make it through this time period in American History.
The book is told from Jeanne’s own experiences in her own town, how her peers at
school treated her, and what it was like being uprooted from their home and
being put into the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar. The book with the news
of Pearl Harbor, and the reactions from the Wakatsuki family. It also begins
with her father being taken away for supposedly supplying oil to Japanese
submarines of the coast while he was fishing. It also goes into some detail on
how their neighbors, and people throughout their town treated them after the
news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It helps to kind of shed some light on one
particular girls point of view, and how she is confused on why people are being
so mean to her and her family. the book also goes into some detail on how it
felt to be split up from her father and how they felt like prisoners in a
country they called home. The book also gives great detail of life in these
camps. This particular book focused only on Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp
near Mammoth. It gives good details on their cramped living situations, and how
that there was no privacy, and how uncomfortable it was in the beginning. It
describes that women used to put boxes over their heads in the restroom, so they
didn’t have to look at anyone, and it thought it would offer them a little
privacy also. It talks about the games, activities, and chores that the children
would play to pass the time also. It also described the mess hall, and the meals
that they had to eat over and over. Another thing that really was amazing to me,
is that the government tried to tell them that these camps were for their own
protection, yet they were surrounded by barbed wire, and guard towers. During
the final chapters of this book, the author does a great job on describing the
tough time the Japanese had returning into society. After the Japanese were
released from these camps and allowed to return to their homes, America still
held a fear and hatred towards these people. She does a great job describing how
hard it was for her to return back into society, and how the people she had
known growing up looked at her, and viewed her, and all the comments and
reactions that she had to listen to and take form people that she didn’t even
know. These camps only stopped the bleeding during the war, the after the war
their release was like opening the wound again.
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