She endures lack of privacy, dust, cold, illness, loss of freedom, and cultural distrust. Jeanne lives in Manzanar from the ages of seven to eleven. He spends many months secluded in the small cubicle assigned to them, drinking his home brewed rice and apricot wines and ranting and yelling at his wife and children. Because he has acted as an interpreter for the government, he is met with suspicion from the community. His nine months as a prisoner of war changes him. The return of Papa Ko Wakatsuki is both joyous and difficult for Jeanne and her family. Mama tries to maintain the integrity of her family, but over the years of camp life, the family loses its cohesiveness. The miserable conditions, total lack of any privacy, and the inability of families to join together at mealtimes aids the rapid collapse of the integral structure of the family. Mama Wakatsuki manages to keep her family together. It has been built hastily and is still under construction when the family arrives. They are sent inland to the first of the camps opened, Manzanar. The Wakatsuki family are among the first to be relocated. Mutual fear of the Japanese and Caucasians encourage the family to move to the relative safety of government protection. He leaves the family fearful and confused, until they are ordered to report for pickup. Here his feet freeze, and he is left with a slight limp, and a beautifully crafted cane. Papa Ko, a proud Issei and patriarch of the family, is arrested as a Japanese spy and sent to Fort Lincoln, near Bismarck, North Dakota. The closeknit life of the Wakatsuki family rapidly begins to change when Pearl Harbor is bombed. Eventually Jeanne is able to learn from her experience and bid farewell to Manzanar and the experiences that changed her life. It takes many years for Jeanne to come to terms with the affects of Manzanar, her shame and attempts to be accepted.

The three and a half years in Manzanar change her family and her outlook on life. As a child of seven, Jeanne is confused by the sudden changes in her large, happy family. They are held in the first camp, Manzanar, throughout World War II. She and her family are swept into the fear and unknown of the internment camp shortly after Pearl Harbor is bombed. All Japanese, whether born in Japan or America, are suspected spies, arrested, and interned in ten hurriedly constructed camps located in desolate, isolated locations inland from the Pacific coast.įarewell to Manzanar is the true story of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family. The Japanese Navy bombs Pearl Harbor, setting off a mass anti-Japanese hysteria. Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Houston, is a coming of age story set in the internment camps of World War II used to separate the ethnic Japanese-Americans from any possible espionage activities.

In the book farewell to manzanar