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Literature Connections: Farewell to Manzanar Historical Context

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Literature Connections: Farewell to Manzanar Historical Context Literature Connections: Farewell to Manzanar Activity The memoir Farewell to Manzanar (1973) draws upon personal memory to relate the experiences of a Japanese American family interned during World War II. Together with her husband, the American novelist James D. Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston looks back on her childhood experiences as a nisei, or American-born child of a Japanese citizen. The story begins where Jeanne's ordinary childhood in Long Beach, California, ends. On December 7, 1941, Jeanne and her family hear the news that Japanese forces have attacked Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Shortly thereafter, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrests Ko, Jeanne's father, who they suspect is supplying oil to Japanese submarines. Although the young Jeanne is distraught by the separation and her mother's tears, these events are less traumatic than what is to come. In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, forcing Japanese Americans to evacuate their homes and enter internment camps. Jeanne and her family are sent to the Manzanar Relocation Center in California. Jeanne recounts both the psychological difficulties her family encounters and the horrors of the camp, like the communal mess halls, foul toilets, and general humiliation. After the war, Jeanne's family returns to Long Beach, and the memoir recounts Jeanne's struggles to overcome prejudice and discrimination as she re-enters American society. The story ends in 1972, with Jeanne returning to visit the site of the Manzanar internment camp as an adult. Historical Context Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's memoir Farewell to Manzanar (1973) describes the experiences of a Japanese American family subjected to internment in the Manzanar camp during World War II, highlighting themes of anti-Asian sentiment in America, confiscation of property, and family breakdown in the camps. The author chose to write about these episodes in her life out of a desire to cast light not just on daily life inside Manzanar, but also to illuminate the lasting trauma the experience of being forcibly interned there had on her family and the disruptive effects it had on their dreams and aspirations. By the 1940s, there had been immigration to the West Coast from Japan on a significant scale for some 50 years, dating from the last years of the 1800s. Successive generations of Japanese immigrants and their children—from the issei (first generation), to the nisei (second generation), to the sansei (third generation)—bore the marks of greater assimilation to American society. Surmounting anti-Asian prejudice, members of these generations of immigrants had found work along the West Coast in a number of professions and established communities and families. But these lives would be irrevocably disrupted with the advent of World War II. World War II Internment The immediate events leading to Japanese internment began with the bombing of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. The United States declared war on Japan and began to mobilize its forces as it was drawn into World War II. On the West Coast, fears—which were later revealed to be unfounded—that Japanese Americans were spying for the Japanese government or even making contact with submarines off the coast, led to community hostility, the application of curfews to Japanese Americans, and apprehensions by the FBI—including of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's father. The next year, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forcible removal of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans, many of whom were American citizens, from their homes to camps. One of the nearly a dozen camps was at Manzanar, California, in the isolated Owens Valley near the Sierra Nevada mountains. There, the internees were confined to barracks, ate dinner in communal halls, and were subjected to the extreme weather fluctuations in these remote areas. The internment, depriving Japanese Americans of due process, was appealed to the Supreme Court, which ruled that it was constitutional in the case Korematsu v. United States (1944). Although the Korematsu case was never officially overturned, justices have condemned the ruling, widely regarded as one of its worst decisions of U.S. history. Questions of Loyalty Despite the grim backdrop, at Manzanar traditional elements of Japanese culture—dancing, gardening, and maintaining religious shrines—coexisted with American culture in the form of sports clubs, Boy Scout groups, and newspapers. These displays of American culture came largely from the nisei in the camp, many of whom were intent on displaying their "Americanness." Many of the men in the camp joined the U.S. Army after bans on Japanese American military service were repealed in 1943. In an effort to replenish the numbers of the 442nd U.S. Army unit, in which many Japanese Americans served in the war, the U.S. government began circulating loyalty questionnaires among the younger Japanese Americans interned in the camps to determine who they might recruit for military service. The questions asked on these forms about whether the internees were loyal to the United States or Japan caused tension within the community in the camps. The divide between first-generation issei and second-generation nisei, with the latter inclining more toward American loyalty, was exacerbated. But the question of loyalty was also a painful one for everyone: how could the Japanese Americans, interned in camps by the United States, be anything but ambivalent in their feelings towards the country that had put them there against their will? As Wakatsuki Houston notes, for many the loyalty oath seemed like the last straw. When most of the camps were closed in 1945 and families allowed to return to their homes, in many cases they found their property stolen or damaged, or else confiscated by tax authorities. As Farewell to Manzanar highlights, it took many years for these communities to recover. In 1988, more than a decade after the publication of Farewell to Manzanar, legislation was passed by Congress and signed by President Ronald Reagan, decrying the policy of Japanese internment and awarding $20,000 to all survivors of the internment. Nick Burns Choose one of the following activities, using the matching Worksheet to organize your information. Analyzing Character How did the injustices that the main character, Jeanne, experienced as a child shape her identity as an adult? When you analyze how her character changes over time, what conclusion can you draw about the long-term effects of discrimination? Analyzing Context Look up Roosevelt's executive order 9066 and write a paper explaining what this order meant in terms of national security. Analyze how the order violated the rights of American citizens and speculate on whether such an order would hold up today. Why or why not? Analyzing Theme Consider the theme of cultural Identity in Farewell to Manzanar, particularly regarding the journey undertaken by Jeanne, and the conflict she experiences as she struggles to exist both as Japanese and as American. What sort of commentary do you feel the author is trying to make about this struggle? Source Reference Japanese American Internment Following the December 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the U.S government relocated and detained anyone of Japanese ancestry (Nikkei) living on the West Coast of the United States. During the Japanese American internment, ordered under the pressure of wartime expediency, nearly 120,000 men, women, and children of Japanese descent were uprooted and exiled regardless of their citizenship status. Lead-Up to Internment Despite anti-Asian racism prevalent on the West Coast at the time, by the 1930s, Japanese immigrants (Issei), had established thriving communities in all of the major coastal cities from San Diego to Seattle, as well as in the major agricultural areas of inland California, Oregon, and Washington. However, as tensions mounted in the Pacific between the United States and Japan prior to World War II, some in the U.S. government and military saw West Coast Nikkei as a potential security risk. They feared that the Nikkei might supply sensitive information to the Japanese government or sabotage military or industrial centers on the West Coast. In 1939, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began compiling a "threat list" of prominent members of the Nikkei community. Meanwhile, the West Coast media fueled racial hostility with widespread characterizations of Nikkei as the "yellow peril." Within 24 hours of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI had taken Nikkei thought to pose the highest risk into custody for questioning; they were later transferred to Justice Department holding facilities. For months, their families had no knowledge of their location or even if they were still alive. Additionally, those not in custody were faced with frozen bank accounts, foreclosed loans, seized property, and an 8:00 P.M. curfew enforced by the military. On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which resulted in the forcible removal from their homes of all persons of Japanese descent on the West Coast and their relocation to holding facilities located throughout the western United States. While this order did not directly mention the removal of persons of Japanese descent, its broad language stating "any or all persons may be excluded" allowed the federal government to justify its wholesale internment of all persons of Japanese descent. Though Nikkei in Hawaii were included under the order, they made up a significant portion of the territory's population, and agriculture in the state was dependent on Nikkei labor. As a result, Hawaii's military governor refused to enforce the internment order on constitutional grounds, though martial law was imposed and civil rights were restricted. Removal and Relocation The government agency in charge of removing Nikkei from the West Coast was the War Relocation Authority (WRA).
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