Analysis Of Farewell To Manzanar

Farewell to Manzanar Analytic Paper Today, many Americans do not know of the sufferings that Japanese-Americans had to go through during World War Two. In Farewell to Manzanar, written by Japanese-American Jeanne Wakatuski Houston and her husband, James D. Houston, readers experience life in a Japanese internment camp in California. American citizens with a Japanese background were treated in an inappropriate and unconstitutional manner to insure a sense of safety in America during the second world war. People learned to embrace the community that they were forced to live in and had to learn to take care of their families in different ways. While living in the camps, many people began to disagree with each other and also started to lose faith

One situation where this is evident is after the Japanese were required to take a loyalty agreement. Many men in the camp believed it would be better to answer “no, no” and wanted everyone in the camp to follow suit. When people wanted to choose for themselves, they were attacked for what they believed in. This happens to Papa when the people in the camp host a meeting about the issue. "At the meeting, when papa stood up to defend the YES YES position, murmurs of 'Inu, inu' began to circulate around the mess hall.” (Houston 88) The camp also affected people later on in life after they were back in society. People who were in the camps lost part of their trust in America and what it is that the country stands for, that all people are created equal with rights that the government cannot take away. When Jeanne was was in middle school, she recalls thinking, “I wondered why my citizenship had to be so loudly affirmed, and I couldn't imagine why affirming it would really make any difference. (If so, why hadn't it kept me out of Manzanar?)" (Houston 61). As the camp was busy causing both positive and negative changes in its inmates, they were also modifying the camp to make it more comfortable and more like

They set up schools, sports, and catechism classes, listened to popular music, went on camping trips and had daily activities. Families decorated their houses to make the camp more like a home. “Quote”. In the camp they had a standard high school for all of the teens to go to. They also had sports teams that faced other high schools in the area. “Quote about high schools.” One other way to pass time in the camp was for teenagers and kids to take activities just like outside the camp. They had dance, acting, and baton twirling classes; there were even classes about Buddhism and Catholicism. Adults would teach the children in the community different skills or talents they had to pass the time, heal loneliness, and to keep their sense of culture and community alive in the