Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. The book describes the experiences of Jeanne Wakatsuki and her family before, during, and following their relocation to the Manzanar internment camp due to the United States government's internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It was adapted into a made-for-TV movie in 1976 starring Yuki Shimoda, Nobu McCarthy, James Saito, Pat Morita, and Mako.
Synopsis
Jeanne Wakatsuki (the book's narrator) is a Nisei (child of a Japanese immigrant). At age seven, Wakatsuki—a native-born American citizen—and her family were living on Ocean Park (near San Pedro, California). They have to move to Terminal Island, where her father, a fisherman who owned two boats, was arrested by the FBI following the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.
Soon after, she and the rest of her family were imprisoned at Manzanar (an American internment camp), where 11,070 Americans of Japanese ancestry and their immigrant parents—who were prevented from becoming American citizens by law—were confined during the Japanese American internment during World War II. The book describes the Wakatsuki's' experiences during their imprisonment and events concerning the family before and after the war.
Ko Wakatsuki (Jeanne's father) emigrated from Japan to Honolulu, Hawaii and then to Idaho, running away with his wife and abandoning his family. Stubborn and proud, he did not cope well with his isolation: he drank and abused his family. Woody (Jeanne's brother) wants to preserve his family's honor by joining the U.S. Army. After joining (and fighting in the Pacific theater) he visits his father's Aunt Toyo, who gave his father money for the trip to Hawaii. After the visit, Woody feels a new pride in his ancestry. He becomes the man of the family, leading them early in their internment.
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Jeanne Wakatsuki says farewell to her father's sardine fleet at San Pedro Harbor. By the time the boats return, news reaches the family that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Jeanne's father burns his Japanese flag and identity papers but is arrested by the FBI and beaten when taken to jail. Jeanne's mother moves the family to the Japanese ghetto on Terminal Island, and then to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 giving the military authority to relocate those posing a potential threat to national security. Americans of Japanese descent await their final destination; “their common sentiment is shikata ga nai” ("it cannot be helped”). A month later the government orders the Wakatsuki's to move to the Manzanar Relocation Center, in the desert 225 miles northeast of Los Angeles.
At the camp, the Japanese Americans find cramped living conditions, badly prepared food, unfinished barracks, and dust blowing in through every crack and knothole. There is not enough warm clothing to go around; many fall ill from immunizations and poorly preserved food, and they face the indignity of non-partitioned camp toilets (which particularly upsets Jeanne's mother). The Wakatsuki's stop eating together in the camp mess hall, and the family begins to disintegrate. Jeanne, virtually abandoned by her family, takes an interest in the other people in camp and studies religion with two nuns. However, after she suffers sunstroke when imagining herself a suffering saint, her father orders Jeanne to stop.
He is arrested and returns a year later from the Fort Lincoln Internment Camp. The family is unsure how to greet him; only Jeanne welcomes him openly. She has always admired her father (who left his samurai family in Japan to protest the declining social status of the samurai), and fondly remembers how he conducts himself—from his courtship of Jeanne's mother to his virtuoso pig-carving. Something happened, however, during his time at the detention camp (where government interrogators accused him of disloyalty and espionage); he is now in a downward emotional spiral. He becomes violent and drinks heavily, nearly striking Jeanne's mother with his cane before Kiyo (Jeanne's youngest brother) punches their father in the face.