Ready Reference Treatise: Farewell to Manzanar

By Raja Sharma

“Farewell to Manzanar” by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston was first published in 1973. It is a detailed memoir that presents the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family during the World War II.

The book presents what they went through before, during, and after they were relocated to the Manzanar camp. They had to go through these experiences because of the U. S. Government’s internment of Japanese-Americans during the war.

The book was made into a movie for television in 1976. The television version of the story was highly appreciated.

Ready Reference Treatise: Farewell to Manzanar
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jun 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310045653

Raja Sharma

Raja Sharma is a retired college lecturer.He has taught English Literature to University students for more than two decades.His students are scattered all over the world, and it is noticeable that he is in contact with more than ninety thousand of his students.

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Ready Reference Treatise: Farewell to Manzanar

Copyright

Ready Reference Treatise: Farewell to Manzanar

Raja Sharma

Copyright@2015 Raja Sharma

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Chapter One: Introduction

Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston was first published in 1973. It is a detailed memoir that presents the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family during the World War II.

The book presents what they went through before, during, and after they were relocated to the Manzanar camp. They had to go through these experiences because of the U. S. Government’s internment of Japanese-Americans during the war.

The book was made into a movie for television in 1976. The television version of the story was highly appreciated.

The memoir begins after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1942 and the entry of the United States in to the Second World War. After three years, the war also began in Europe.

The European countries attacked by the forces of Adolf Hitler sought American help, but the public opinion in the United States was divided.

On one side there were isolationists who believed that the German dictator Adolf Hitler was not a threat to the United States, but on the other side there were the interventionists, led by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who believed that fascism was a global threat.

Eventually, there was a compromise between these two groups. The policy was called Lend-Lease. The United States agreed to help the Allied forces with military supplies and food in exchange for military bases in British and French territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

The government of the United States was more worried about protecting America than with trying to curb the combined Axis powers of Germany and Italy.

Eventually, Japan also joined the Axis. The United States continued to stay away from any intervention. President Roosevelt called it ‘measures short of war.’ The United States imposed an embargo on scrap iron and steel shipments to Japan.

The Japanese were obviously very much upset. General Hideki Tojo, the head of the Japanese military, sent his representatives to the United States to negotiate with the Americans.

On 7th of December, 1941, during the negotiations, the Japanese forces attacked the headquarters of the United States Navy’s Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

It was an unprovoked attack that took the lives of around 2,500 people. Several U. S. soldiers were killed and seriously wounded. The U. S. Fleet was severely crippled.

In the words of President Roosevelt, the attack on Pearl Harbor is a date which will live in infamy.

After three days, the United States declared war on Japan. With the declaration of war, the Japanese-Americans in the United States began to be viewed not just as unwanted aliens but as enemies to be feared.

Owing to this irrational fear, the government ordered the internment of the people of Japanese origin. All this is described in the memoir Farewell to Manzanar by Wakatsuki.

It is a great work of historical literature that is highly revealing and informative. This non-fiction account of the events, probably not known to the rest of the world, reveals the struggles which the Japanese-Americans had to go through during the Second World War.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

It is 7th December, 1941. Jeanne Wakatsuki, the author, says farewell Papa’s sardine fleet at San Pedro Harbor in California. Only after a short while, the boats come back with the news that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Papa immediately burns his Japanese flag and identity papers. The FBI arrest Papa. The family is obviously in trouble. Mama and the other members of the family move to the Japanese ghetto on Terminal Island. Later on they move to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles.

President Roosevelt passes an Executive Order 9066. He signs that order in February 1942.