Farewell To Manzanar Sparknotes

The novel, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston is about Wakatsuki and her family’s experience in the Internment Camp, Manzanar. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 which allowed the unconstitutional arrest of all Japanese Americans. Wakatsuki’s father was arrested falsely arrested for giving oil to Japanese submarines. As a result, he spent ten months in a separate prison camp that completely changed him. In Chapter Five of Farewell to Manzanar, Wakatsuki writes about the first months she and her family spent in Manzanar without her father and then she describes how they react when Papa returns. The three

She then goes on to describe mealtimes in Manzanar, “Now, in the mess halls, after a few weeks had passed, we stopped eating as a family” (Wakatsuki Houston 32). Wakatsuki stresses the importance of family dinners before the war and compares them to mealtimes at Manzanar to show how the internment of Japanese Americans affected the lives of many families, such as her own. After describing mealtimes, Wakatsuki goes on to describe how she became fascinated with Catholicism. Wakatskui mentions that before Papa got arrested and she got sent away, she was afraid of Catholics because her Papa told her that Catholics are evil when she tried to join the

With no regular school to attend and no home to spend time in, it’s no mystery that I should have been drawn to these two kind and generous women”. Wakatsuki’s explanation shows the importance of this section because it shows how people find their own interests when they are not being controlled and it also shows that people often rely on religion to help them when they are in desperate situations. Finally, Wakatsuki tells the readers the reaction she and her family show when Papa returns to them after ten months. When Papa returns, he looks a lot older and he has a cane. The authors use reflection to show the distinction between her father before and after being imprisoned. She does this by reflecting on how she was the only one to hug him once he returned, and instead of laughing, she and her family were crying, “Now I was so happy to see him that I ran up and threw my arms around his waist and buried my face in his belt. I thought I should be laughing and welcoming him home. But I started to cry. By this time everyone was crying. No one else had moved to touch him yet” (Wakatsuki