Farewell To Manzanar

A Japanese American Tragedy

Farewell to Manzanar, written by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Japanese American, and James D. Houston, describes about the experience of being sent to an internment camp during World War II. The evacuation of Japanese Americans started after President Roosevelt had signed the Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942. Along with ten thousand other Japanese Americans, the Wakatsuki was sent on a bus to Manzanar, California. There, they were placed in an internment camp, many miles from their home with only what they could carry. The lives of the Japanese Americans in the internment was a struggle. But for some of the Japanese Americans, it was even harder after they were discharged from the internment camp. The evacuation and the internment had changed the lives of all Japanese Americans. The evacuation and internment affected the Wakatsuki family in three ways: the destruction of Papa's self-esteem, the separation of the Wakatsuki family, and the change in their social status.

The destruction of Papa's self-esteem is one effect of the evacuation and internment. Before the evacuation and internment, Papa was proud; he had a self-important attitude yet he was dignified. Wakatsuki describes Papa as "a poser, a braggart, and a tyrant. But he had held on to his self-respect" (58). He was "absurdly proud" (54) that he went to the law school even though he never finished. Prior to the evacuation and internment, his self-esteem was not destroyed. When "Papa was take to the prison, he did not let the deputies push him out the door, instead he led them" (8). This manner is clearly contrasted after the evacuation and internment. Papa's self-esteem no longer existed. Papa drunk heavily inside the barracks, "day after day he would sip his rice wine or his apricot brandy, sip till he was blind drunk and passed out" (65). His pride was diminishing like a vapor of alcohol. He became abusive towards Mama, "He yelled and shook his fists and with his very threats forced her across the cluttered room until she collided with one of the steel bed frames and fell back onto a mattress" (71). Papa's dignity had disappeared; he had become a drunk and an abusive man. The effects of the evacuation