Farewell To Manzanar By Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

Did the U.S. government and President Franklin D. Roosevelt make the right decision when they signed Executive Order 9066? In December of 1941, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by Japan. In response to that attack, Executive Order 9066 put 110,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps. Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston, shares the story of Jeannie Wakatsuki and how her life was changed in an internment camp in California. Jeannie’s story comes from a Japanese American’s point of view, who lived four years of her childhood in Manzanar camp with her family. The U.S. government had the urge to secure America’s safety, so internment camps were built to keep Japanese Americans isolated. The U.S. government cannot be exonerated on account of their actions against Japanese Americans who experienced family dysfunction, racism, and disrupted lives, changing their futures forever.

Examples of family dysfunction include not having meals together and being sent away from family members without communication. Separation of families was encouraged by the government when they required an application to be filled out by people seventeen years and older. This application caused family members to be sent away from their loved ones, including “Woody who, in August 1944, had been drafted” (95). After the war, many family members had died from the torture and unhealthy lifestyle in the internment camps. This problem is one that is difficult to repair, and it hurt many people who were innocent. Family dysfunction was a major problem for Japanese Americans in the 1940s because of the U.S. government who separated them in internment