The Wakatsukis, with Jeanne's brother Woody at the head, are transported to Owens Valley, California, home of 10,000 internees. In February 1942, President Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066 ordering Japanese-Americans to evacuate their homes and take up residence in internment camps. FBI agents arrest Jeanne's father, Ko, for allegedly supplying oil to Japanese submarines and imprison him at Fort Lincoln, near Bismarck, North Dakota. On Sunday, December 7, 1941, in Long Beach, California, the family - consisting of both parents, Jeanne's four brothers and five sisters, and Granny - are startled by news that Japan has attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Named one of the twentieth century's 100 best nonfiction books from west of the Rockies by the San Francisco Chronicle.Beginning with a foreword and a time line, Farewell to Manzanar contains an autobiographical memoir of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's wartime incarceration at Manzanar, a Japanese-American internment camp. Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar.įarewell to Manzanar has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and great resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was. For her father it was essentially the end of his life.

For Jeanne Wakatsuki, a seven-year-old child, Manzanar became a way of life in which she struggled and adapted, observed and grew. One of the first families to arrive was the Wakatsukis, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese American internees. The powerful true story of life in a Japanese American internment camp.ĭuring World War II the community called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras.

Farewell to manzanar jeanne