At ten I saw that coming, like a judge's sentence, and I would have stayed inside the camp forever rather than step outside and face such a moment. 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.

moving from familiar imprisonment to an unfamiliar cultural climate of racism is a terrifying prospect.Ĭall it the foretaste of being hated. One particularly heartbreaking thing is that when the war ends, many japanese americans are reluctant to leave internment. for jeanne's family and many others, cooperation becomes survival. it means nothing can be done about it, there is no way, it cannot be helped and this is a typical attitude about interment. Shikata ga nai is a japanese phrase that echoes throughout the WWII era. he is plaintively attached to japan despite knowing that he will never go back.

he suffers miserably, escapes with the numbing of alcoholism, abuses jeanne's mother, and remains caught between his loyalty to japan and his loyalty to the US.

her story is told through the eyes of a child who cannot fully understand all that she's enduring not only the shoddy living conditions and the concept of being restricted to internment, but witnessing the endless struggles of her family. Jeanne wakatsuki was one of thousands of japanese americans sent to internment camps during WWII, and she resided there during a significant chunk of her childhood. i wish i had sooner, because it's an important story, especially within the context of the many cultural shifts of the WWII era. Several years ago i took a postwar japan course that assigned this memoir, but it was dropped off the syllabus at the end of the year and i didn't take the time to revisit it.

Farewell to manzanar by jeanne houston