Farewell To Manzanar And Unbroken

Internment camps were common in many countries during World War 2, including America. The Japanese-Americans were interned out of fear from Pearl Harbor and, although the conditions weren’t terrible, the aftermath was hard to overcome. Along with the Japanese-Americans, our American soldiers were also interned in Japan, but in harsher conditions and aftermaths. The camps, no matter how unpleasant, were turning points for both internees. While reading Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki and Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, these points are obvious. In Unbroken Louie Zamperini was a bombardier for the Air Corps. His position during the war indirectly placed him in Japan’s hands when his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the

Death was almost inevitable due to the kill-all order if the Americans were to win the war, the grotesque conditions the camps were under with rats everywhere, “climbing up his waste basket and wallowing in his urine pail, waking him at night by skittering over his face” (Hillenbrand 187), and the “floor was a thin [straw mat], which would be his bed, with three paper sheets… The walls were flimsy, the floorboards gaped, the ceiling was tarpaper” (Hillenbrand 199). Not to mention that the guards, wanting nothing but the suffering of the enemy internees, would beat the POWs with “such intensity that many of us wondered if we’d ever live to see the end of the war” (Hillenbrand 200). On the other hand, even though Manzanar was completed, “although finished was hardly a word for it. The shacks were built of one thickness of pine planking covered with tarpaper” (Houston 20), the intentions of the camp were as good as they could be considering the circumstances. “The Caucasian servers were thinking that the fruit poured over rice would make a good desert.” (Houston 20) The restrictions differed greatly in each camp endured as well. In Manzanar not many rules were in place, even allowing them to buy things from Sears catalogs (Houston 130), but in Ofuna Louie was “forbidden to speak to anyone but the guards, to put his hands in his pockets, or make eye contact with any other captives.” (Hillenbrand 198). The end of the war was a mixed bag for the characters in both books. On one hand, Louie and the other POWs wanted America to win, but with the kill-all order in place, it was frightening. Jeanne and her family felt safe in Manzanar, seeing it as their home, and they weren’t really keen on having to