Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
"Farewell to Manzanar" is a memoir by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston that recounts her childhood experiences as a Japanese American during World War II. The narrative begins with her family's dramatic upheaval following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which leads to the internment of Japanese Americans in camps across the United States. The Wakatsuki family is relocated to the Manzanar internment camp in California's Owens Valley, where they face harsh living conditions and the stigma of disloyalty. The story explores themes of resilience, family dynamics, and the struggle for identity in the face of prejudice.
As Jeanne navigates her childhood in the camp, she engages in various activities and forms connections despite the challenges. The memoir captures her coming-of-age journey as she grapples with the impact of internment on her family and herself. Through the lens of her experiences, the narrative delves into issues of racism, patriotism, and the longing for acceptance, reflecting the broader context of Japanese American experiences during this tumultuous period. Ultimately, "Farewell to Manzanar" serves as a poignant reminder of the injustices faced by Japanese Americans and the enduring legacy of their resilience.
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Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
First published: 1973
Type of work: Memoir
Type of plot: Historical
Time of plot: 1941-early 1970’s
Locale: Owens Valley and Los Angeles, California
Principal personages
Jeanne Wakatsuki , the narratorKo Wakatsuki , her fatherRiku Wakatsuki , her motherWoody Wakatsuki , her older brother
The Story:
Seven-year-old Jeanne Wakatsuki stands with her mother, Riku Wakatsuki, and sisters-in-law on a wharf in Long Beach, California, waving good-bye to her father as his fishing boat sails out with the sardine fleet. At the farthest point in sight, the boats turn around and sail back to the harbor. Jeanne’s life is about to change irretrievably. The fishermen bring news that Pearl Harbor in Hawaii has been bombed by the Japanese.
That night, Ko Wakatsuki burns his heirloom Japanese flag and the documents he had brought to the United States when he moved from Japan thirty-five years ago. Two weeks later, two federal agents take him away. The family moves several times in subsequent weeks. In April, 1942, they are ordered to report to a Buddhist temple as a pickup point for what they have been told is resettlement. The bus ride that takes them into the California desert takes all day. Jeanne has never been out of the Los Angeles area before, and she finds the trip a grand adventure. Her older brothers and sisters are relieved to be away from the hostility directed at them by whites.
The family arrives at a camp of black barracks, hastily constructed in a desert wasteland north of Los Angeles, in the Owens Valley along the eastern Sierra Nevada. Sand is everywhere in and around the camp, Manzanar. Unlike many other Japanese American “evacuees,” the Wakatsukis have at least managed to stay together as a family. They are assigned two units in Block 16—two 16 by 20 foot spaces to hold twelve people. They immediately partition the rooms with blankets, giving the two young couples some privacy, and try to sleep despite the howling wind that drives sand through every crack. In the morning, Woody, in his father’s absence the de facto family head, puts his brothers to work nailing can lids over holes in the floor and turning waste paper into impromptu weather stripping.
As the youngest child, Jeanne is protected by her older siblings, who care for her as best they can. Jeanne gets to sleep next to her mother. No one can protect her, though, from diarrhea caused by spoiled food, from latrines that do not work, and from many other indignities of forced group life under semiprimitive conditions.
Children, however, are resilient. Despite the initial lack of basic services, such as a school, Jeanne explores the camp, discovering interesting things to do. During her time at Manzanar, she frequents the Maryknoll sisters’ chapel, listening to their stories of saints and martyrs. She joins the recreation program that takes children outside the barbed wire fences for cookouts and hikes. She even samples a lesson from an old geisha in the traditional odori dance, but the performance seems so weird that Jeanne never returns. Her favorite activity is the baton-twirling lessons, which she loves.
As time goes on, life at Manzanar improves in some ways. A hospital and schools open. The worst construction defects are remedied, and barracks become a bit more comfortable and homelike. Jeanne’s father, Ko, returns to his family after nine months spent at Fort Lincoln. The experience has changed and aged him drastically—not so much from physical privation as from the stigma of disloyalty and loss of dignity that it represents. For months after Ko’s arrival he huddles in the family’s unit, making homemade wine in an improvised still and having outbursts of explosive anger.
Halfway through World War II, some restrictions keeping Japanese Americans in the camps are lifted. Nisei (second-generation Japanese Americans who are U.S. citizens by birth) are allowed to leave and move elsewhere, if they have a job lined up. Nisei men are also declared eligible for the military draft. Jeanne’s brother Woody argues with his father over the draft, but when the time comes, the whole family proudly sees Woody off with his unit.
When the camp closes and Jeanne moves back to Los Angeles with her parents, she wants most of all to be a normal American girl. Things do not quite work out this way, however. She cannot join some groups, like the Girl Scouts, because of her Japanese ancestry. She does have some ego-boosting achievements, though: being a drum majorette for a Boy Scout band, and, in her senior year, being elected by her classmates as carnival queen. Still, she always feels branded by being different, and the shame of the internment years is hidden so deep that she can hardly speak of them.
Many years later, Jeanne begins to recall her Manzanar experiences and starts writing about them. A visit to the site stirs many memories, but it also gives her the ability to deal with them. Now the place that had shaped her life is being reshaped into desert by the inexorable forces of nature.
Bibliography
Bryant, Dorothy. “The School Yearbook with the Barbed-Wire Design.” Nation 219, no. 15 (November 9, 1974): 469. A brief but incisive article about Farewell to Manzanar and the difficulties of teaching about the Japanese American internment experience of World War II.
Houston, James D. In the Ring of Fire: A Pacific Basin Journey. San Francisco: Mercury House, 1997. Account of a journey of discovery by the Houstons to the island nations of the Pacific Rim, seeking the cultural ties they share.
Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki. The Legend of Fire Horse Woman. New York: Kensington, 2003. Houston’s novel that draws on the camp experience to show three generations of women discovering their strengths while interned.
McGovern, Edythe M. “Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston.” Cyclopedia of World Authors. 4th rev. ed. Pasadena, Calif.: Salem Press, 2004. A biographical essay on Houston that briefly covers Farewell to Manzanar. Good for background on Houston.
Tateishi, John, comp. And Justice for All: An Oral History of the Japanese American Detention Camps. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1999. Thirty former camp residents speak about the internment experience and its effect on their lives.