“Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki recaps the early life of Jeanne as a Japanese American during World War 2. It tell the story of how she ended up in the internment camp Manzanar and how it changed not only her, but all those she held dear. We see her develop from a young child all the way to an adult visiting the now dismantled camp with her children. The book takes a look into many aspects of life and the difficulties one faces throughout it. The book is also very accessible to all people. “Farewell to Manzanar” is a very good book due to its, writing style, its insight into racism, and it insight into growing up.
Jeanne was 7 years old living with her Japanese American family,the Wakatsuki, in a small part of LA called Ocean Park. She lived there with her Papa, Mother, Grandmother, and her brothers Kiyo, Woody, and Bill. The eldest Brothers, Woody and Bill, work on Papa’s fishing boat. On December 7, 1941 ,the day Pearl Harbor was bombed, the Wakatsuki are told to move to a Japanese ghetto called Terminal Island. It is there that Papa is arrested and brought to Fort Lincoln for supposed assistance of the
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Jeanne never sees the battle fronts or the policy changes, all she sees are the results they have on her everyday life. She deals with the racist undertones formed by the anti-japanese war propaganda. While in the camp she fears she will just be beaten and despised once outside, but this does not happen. Instead she faces the minute racism that is the most common form of bigotry. Jeanne faces this racism from not only students but teachers and strangers. While in high school, many teachers tried to manipulate the vote of Prom Queen to go to another students, when Jeanne got the most votes. Earlier in her childhood, Jeanne and her brother Kiyo were spat on by a passerby and insulted for being Japanese. These and many other examples show the racism she faced