Farewell to Manzanar: A Powerful Memoir of Growing Up in a Japanese Incarceration Camp

Farewell to Manzanar is probably one of the best nonfiction book I have read in terms of the way the story is written. In it, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, an American- Japanese girl, is sent to a Manzanar, a camp for Japanese in the U.S. during WWII, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. However, unlike in other non-fiction books about people’s hardships, the author keeps the tone light in an otherwise dark situation. For example, “I couldn’t help laughing at Mama Walking around in army earmuffs and a pair of wide-cuffed, khaki-colored wool trousers several sizes too big for her,” wrote the author. Even though the situation was that there wasn’t much clothes at that time and they weren’t that great for warmth, the story is constructed with humor instead of simply just showing how bad things were. That doesn’t mean the book had no dark moments. In it however, these moments weren’t often drained on and at many times, were unexpected. For example from the book can be, “Not until after Papa died and we began to come together, trying to fill the vacuum his passing left in all our lives.” While it was stated in sad mood, the author didn’t drag it on and instead, she continued on the story like the statement was not even made. However, Farewell to Manzanar is far from having any flaws. One of them was that at certain parts in the book, the author would mention something that happened much later in the story. An example from the book can be, “Later on, sewing machines were shipped in, and one barrack was turned into a clothing factory.” This and other statements couldn’t have been used when the book was on that time of the story. However, this is not the case for most of these statements, so they instead spoil certain events that would come much later like Papa’s death. However, even with this flaws, the book is still an excellent to read for its great characters, storyline, situations, and tone. It is especially wonderful for anyone who is interested in the lives of American- Japanese people living in America during WWII. Those being said, don’t expect a book detailing what all these people dealt with during that time. This is a book about one person’s experience during that time. So, if you want a good story on a depressing situation, this is the book for you.

This is a well told first-hand account of a shameful piece of American history. Easy to read.

The WWII Japanese Internment camps represent a sad, embarrassing chapter in American history, which is probably why I never read about it during my time in school. Over 110,000 Japanese people were forcibly sent to 1 of 10 camps throughout the West. The majority of the internees were actually U.S. citizens, some 2nd or 3rd generation. The author was only 7 when her family was bused from Los Angeles to Manzanar in a remote corner of the Eastern Sierra between Mt. Whitney and Death Valley. The camp wasn't even completed yet when the first internees arrived. Families were assigned half of a flimsy barracks building with no walls for privacy. They ate communal meals and used communal toilets. The climate was hostile, with heavy winds howling down off of the mountains kicking up dust constantly. The cold winter weather penetrated the thin tar-papered walls of the barracks buildings. In spite of the remote, hostile environment, the inhabitants worked to make their temporary home more comfortable, by decorating and building partitions. They cultivated vegetable gardens and harvested fruit from the orchards. Kids went to school; babies were conceived and born at the camp. In short, life went on. However, the camp life lead to an inevitable deterioration in the family structure. Meals were communal rather than family events, and parents had no way of providing for their families in the traditional method. Jeanne's father had a very difficult time in camp, and deteriorated into alcoholism. As she wrote in the book though her life started in camp, her father's life ended there. He never recovered his fishing business or his sense of self worth. The book provides an insightful glimpse into the daily life in the camps as well as the emotional and economic toll extracted from the inhabitants. They lost their businesses, their homes, their way of life and their dignity. In a sad commentary on the personal havoc wreaked by the camps, the author noted that the last to leave were the elderly people; they had nothing to return to, and no energy or confidence to go back into their old communities and rebuild so they hung onto camp life until forced to leave. I had the opportunity to visit the desolate, remote Manzanar camp in 2012. Only a couple of barracks are left, but there is an excellent visitor center that faithfully recreates what it must have been to live there. You can drive around the roads and see how large the camp was. The magnificent mountain range looms large on the horizon, with tantalizing beauty and freedom, which was denied to those inside the barbed wire fences. Farewell to Manzanar is a beautifully written important memoir since there is so little written about that time. Pay no attention to the number of 1 and 2-star reviews. It appears that most of those are written by school age children who were forced to read the book and do a review, and probably didn't appreciate the cultural significance of the internment camps.

When I went to K-12 School in America, from 1956 to 1968, we never ever were taught about FDR's Executive Order 9066 or what happened as a Direct Result of it back in 1942. It just was not a part of the Academic List of Subjects to cover. I had heard Rumors about it, on the Side, over the years, but nobody could tell me the Entire Story, until I finally got to read, "Farewell to Manzanar". OMG, it's hard to believe that America would do such a thing to it's OWN CITIZENS, including Innocent Children. Once I got the book, I could not put it down, until I had read it Non-Stop, to the Very End. Well, that was many years ago, and it's only now I'm writing the REVIEW, because I just found out Jeanne Wakatsuki-Houston, the Author, has JUST DIED, at age 90, on December 21, 2024, and is no longer with us anymore. It broke my heart, and all I can say is I hope she is now with the Rest of Her Family in Heaven. RIP Jeanne, you and your Family certainly deserve it.

An excellent read in addition to the history - about the human toll that events like this create, and how the heroes/heroines deal with that. I have been to Manzanar a few times and this helps bring this place alive. There was a TV program on California public TV done by Huell Howser I think on the 50th anniversary/reunion - good to pair with.

good read,well written

最近アジアもきな臭い。海外で活躍する日系の助けも必要だとの記事も散見されるようになった。 日本を出たことがない私が、たまたま出会った本であるが、彼らの助けを得るためには日本にいる我々もより一層襟をただして行く事が大事だと認識した。出なければ、海外の方々の生活も壊れるのだから。

it was honestly different story than that its tite, it was a life story of a very ordinary family, who stayed in camp for 4 years. it wad nothing historically attractive to learn. in general it was a memoir of apoerson who remember nothing for the time she stayed Manzanar. title of the book confuses about its content, but there is really nothing to read, most of the book is about the type.and colour of the cloths they wore, i dont revommend it if you are looking for a histotical book.....