Farewell To Manzanar (1973) by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston - Nonfiction

An intimate perspective on life in a WWII internment camp through the eyes of a young Japanese-American girl: Generational trauma and moving forward.

Wakatsuki Houston’s memoir Farewell To Manzanar has become a modern classic read by millions of students. Her husband, James, was an important contributor and is considered its author too. It's a first person point of view narrative told by Jeanne as a young girl. Her and her family were evacuated against their will by the U.S. government to an internment camp in 1942. The government deemed this a legitimate action at the start of WWII because they suspected collusion between Japanese-Americans and Imperial Japan. The camp’s name was Manzanar located near Lone Pine, California. It held thousands of Japanese-Americans, many of whom were U.S. citizens! It was in operation from 1942-1945, but Wakatsuki begins her story a little before this and continues a few years after as she ventures through high school and college.

It’s an arresting and poignant memoir in and of itself, but drawing connections with today’s immigration issues are eerily easy (think family separation and the re-awakening of White Supremacists sentiments). However, immigration “issues” are not the primary focus. Wakatsuki’s overarching goal is to tell her story of Manzanar with emphasis on the harmful effects the internment had on her family and her personal growth. It does not take long for Manzanar to deteriorate the fabric of her family. Instead of eating meals all together like they used to “[m]y own family, after three years of mess hall living, collapsed as an integrated unit. Whatever dignity or feeling of filial strength we may have known before December 1941 was lost” (37). The collapse of family unity and identity are central themes throughout the book.

Wakatsuki’s family revolves around her father. He was a man born in Japan but sacrificed a lot attempting to achieve his American Dream. Wakatsuki doesn’t hold back her true feelings about him, “He was not a great man. He wasn’t even a very successful man. He was a poser, a braggart, and a tyrant. But he had held onto his self-respect, he dreamed grand dreams, and he could work well at any task he turned his hand to” (59). Her respect for him fluctuates throughout her life just as the stability of her family seems to depend on his unstable mental fortitude. Like everyone else in Manzanar, eventually he too needs to acquiesce something of himself to the internment. Wakatsuki reflects upon him and the sublime beauty of the Eastern Sierra mountains surrounding Manazar, “They also represent those forces of nature, those powerful and inevitable forces that cannot be resisted, reminding a man that sometimes he must simply endure that which cannot be changed” (98). Manzanar becomes for thousands of Japanese-Americans more than a place but a state of mind too.

While reading I was reminded of the striking ability humans have to adapt. The camp becomes “a totally equipped American small town, complete with schools, churches, Boy Scouts, beauty parlors, neighborhood gossip, fire and police departments, glee clubs” and more (100). At one point there are 10,000 people living there. Wakatsuki lives in a dual world–one in which is completely surrounded by Japanese people which offers a racially homogenous safety net. Yet, she is still influenced by the larger American culture that seeps in via music and movies. She succeeds in adapting.

The downside of adapting so well is what will you do when you’re forced to leave? The idea of being forced to vacate an internment camp sounded bizarre to me at first. However, after the war ends Wakatsuki’s family has nothing to return to. As they attempt to make a life for themselves again “one desperately wanted to believe that nothing had changed during those years in suspended animation [Manzanar internment]. But of course, as we soon discovered, everything had” (152). Their world changed over night with the attack on Pearl Harbor. Suddenly, it wasn’t only the U.S. government who was suspicious of Japanese-Americans, but everyday citizens too. “I had heard Mama say with lonesome resignation, ‘I don’t understand all this hate in the world’” (151).

After Manzanar, Wakatsuki desperately attempts to assimilate into mainstream American culture. She utilizes her superb skills in baton twirling which actually originated in Manzanar. It “was one trick I could perform that was thoroughly unmistakably American” (109). But as she enters high school and faces more racism, she “lived with this double impulse: the urge to disappear and the desperate desire to be accepted” (159). She watches as White friends move up in the ranks of social clubs like Girl Scouts while she’s left behind. She fights on, however, and her resilience comes to a climax when she gets the most votes for high school Homecoming Queen. But racist attitudes of school administration muddy the waters and leads to a tense standoff.

Farewell to Manzanar is a very accessible read. Wakatsuki’s voice is matter-of-fact, but still emotionally provocative. She does not pine for attention or sympathy, but she still deservingly manages to attain it. It’s just over 200 pages, but the research that went into it was likely thousands of pages and dozens of hours of recordings. Her storytelling pace is swift and she is able to fit a lot into so few pages.

Students around the country are assigned Farewell to Manzanar every year for its historical relevance and conversation starting potential. Historically, we learn about Manzanar, but also how its harmful effects ripple down generationally. Right before being released from Manzanar, Wakatsuki recounts, “Call it a foretaste of being hated. I knew ahead of time that if someone looked at me with hate, I would have to allow it, to swallow it, because something in me, something about me deserved it” (130). This is called trauma, and its effects are seamlessly passed down through family. It’s a legacy of nauseating U.S. history. Unfortunately, this is a part of our past that many people easily forget or have never learned about in the first place. It’s a book for students, but more than that, it’s for anyone interested in seeing life in America from a lesser known perspective.

Highest Score - 5 Trophies

Writing: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Readability: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Argument: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

Overall: 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

March 14, 2021