Manzanar Camp Reflected Jeanne Wakatsuki's Life

Signed on February 19, 1942, president Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The law stated that all Japanese American citizens would be placed in internment camps. This included Jeanne Wakatsuki, and the Manzanar camp changed her life in a horrendous way. When inside the Manzanar internment camp, Jeanne was distraught and questioned everything about herself and her family; in the process, she doubted her Japanese identity and thought about why her family couldn't get citizenship. These thoughts came to the same conclusion: Jeanne, and her family, were foreign from the rest of society. Jeanne Wakatsuki was affected for the worse throughout World War II, which caused dramatic changes in continuing resentment against Japanese people

Jeanne admits that her father made her afraid of Asian faces when she says, “One of his threats to keep us younger kids in line was, ‘I'm going to sell you to the China man.’ . . . They sat me next to a caucasian girl who happened to have very slanted eyes. I looked at her and began to scream, certain papa had sold me out at last” (Wakatsuki 10). Jeanne's dad has made her scared of Asian people, so when Jeanne is racist against a Caucasian girl with slanted eyes, she shows a sign of not wanting to be Asian herself. When Jeanne Wakatsuki came back from internment camp and began going to school with people who were not Asians, she faced subtle racism, like when Jeanne stood up to read and “Everyone turned to watch” (Wakatsuki 141). She read perfectly, But when Jeanne went to sit down, “A pretty blond girl said, quite innocently, ‘Gee, I didn't know you could speak english!’ She was genuinely amazed. I was shocked” (Wakatsuki 141). Jeanne’s Caucasian classmates didn't think she could speak English because she looked foreign to them, proving that even though her classmates did not necessarily want to be biased against her, Jeanne still had to face the consequences of being from her country after the war. In and out of internment camps, Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family faced discrimination because of their

Papa had to explain his struggle to get American citizenship to an interviewer when the police suspected him of giving oil to Japanese ships. Papa said, “I have been living in this country nine years longer than you have. Do you realize that? Yet I am prevented from becoming a citizen” (Wakatsuki 57). This quote shows Papa becoming angry because he and his family are prevented from getting citizenship. This provoked later arguments among the family and caused Jeanne to grow further apart from her family, as well as causing her to look at her culture in a bad light. In the text, Jeanne's dad and Woody, her brother, fought about the yes yes no no questions given to them, but the fight ended up turning to talk about citizenship when Woody says, “I am an American citizen” (Wakatsuki 75). However, papa is not pleased with this answer and responds, “And look where they have put us!” (Wakatsuki 75). This quote proves people in charge of Japanese relocation camps were reluctant to do anything about the people not being able to get citizenship, and certainly didn't care about their well-being. In conclusion, America not giving citizenship to Japanese americans greatly impacted Jeanne and her family during