Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II Internment

Farewell to Manzanar is a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. It is a nonfiction account that employs first-person narration. Centering on a young girl’s life in the Manzanar Japanese American concentration camp, Farewell to Manzanar is used in school curricula throughout the US and inspired a 1976 film of the same name. The version used for this guide is the 1995 edition from Laurel Leaf Books.

Content Warning: This guide discusses the US imprisonment of Japanese Americans during World War II; it uses the phrase “concentration camp” to describe what were known at the time as “internment camps.” It also references alcohol addiction, domestic abuse, and racism/xenophobia.

Summary

Jeanne narrates her experience as a seven-year-old girl living in a concentration camp for Japanese Americans during World War II (WWII). Prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, she lives with her mother (Mama), father (Papa), and many siblings in Long Beach, California. However, after the US enters WWII in 1941, Papa is arrested for possible espionage, and the family is forced to move to Manzanar camp in a remote location of inland California. For the first year, Jeanne lives with Mama and her siblings in barracks, and the family waits for Papa to be released from his detainment. After almost a year, he arrives at Manzanar; however, he is a changed man in both appearance and habits.

Life in Manzanar is difficult for Jeanne and her family: Papa turns to alcohol, resulting in increasingly abusive behaviors; the family unit begins to disintegrate; and conditions at the camp are generally poor. The general mood of frustration leads those in Manzanar to rise up against the camp administration in December 1942. While the “December Riot” is quickly dispersed, it leads to the introduction of the Loyalty Oath, which all those incarcerated must answer so the US government can assess their loyalty and willingness to enlist. This Oath is divisive, ultimately turning many once-loyal Japanese Americans against the US.

As the years progress, conditions in Manzanar improve, and those inside accept the camp as their new normal. Jeanne attends school and takes part in newly introduced extracurriculars, realizing that she is interested in stereotypically American activities as opposed to traditional Japanese ones. Mama works, and Papa becomes interested in art. Jeanne’s brother Woody enlists, and many of her siblings find work on the East Coast.

With the end of the war, the government plans the camps’ closures. By 1945, many have already left or have plans to leave; however, Papa elects that Jeanne, Mama, and Jeanne’s younger siblings stay in the camp until it closes.

Returning to life post-Manzanar is challenging for Jeanne and her family. They originally return to Southern California. Mama is the breadwinner, Papa is not successful in his entrepreneurial pursuits, and Jeanne struggles with her peers viewing her as a foreigner. While she has one close friend in middle school, she finds herself more isolated in high school. Her experience changes after the family moves to the northern part of California, where she attends a new high school. Much to her surprise, she is crowned “Annual Carnival Queen” by her classmates; however, she is not certain that her peers really know her identity, a concept she herself is still struggling with.

In the years after Manzanar, Jeanne realizes that she developed feelings of shame attached to her imprisonment. Almost 30 years later, she returns to the site of Manzanar with her husband and children. Reflecting upon the development of her identity as well as her feelings of self-worth, she considers her return a pilgrimage in which she can finally reconcile her internment and say “farewell” to that period of her life.