Rebekah Ladd
Prof. Reed
HIST 18
4/15/2014
1,412

Farwell to Manzanar
In the book farewell to Manzanar, many Japanese Americans are faced with upsetting news that because of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, they will now be transferred to an internment camp. Without warning or choice, they are shipped off to an unknown land to face the next few years as prisoners within their own country. In an attempt to bring some normalcy into the camp, they come together and build themselves a camp that they can enjoy.
During the beginning of the book, we learnt that they were given little to no time to prepare for leaving to the internment camp. It was a rush decision made by the government to attempt to try to contain all the Japanese from giving information to the Japanese government. Because they were given little time to prepare, all of the belonging that they had either had to be sold, or carried by hand to their next destination. In the story farewell to Manzanar, we learn that secondhand dealers were lurking around trying to buy items that they could not take with them, for extremely cheap. “Mama had to sell this china…he offered her fifteen dollars for it. She said it was a full setting for twelve and worth at least two hundred… he watched for a moment and said he was sure he couldn’t pay more that seventeen fifty for that china. She reached into the red velvet case, took out a dinner plate and hurled it at the floor right in front of his feet.” (Wakatsuki Houston 32) This passage stuck out to me, because I couldn’t imagine the feeling of having to sell every precious thing that you had, and for people to take advantage of that by mocking you with a very low offer. To know that these people had to give up things that they loved, because of a bombing they didn’t cause, is such a low thing to do. I found a picture of a receipt of what looks like someone selling their jewelry to a pawnshop sort of place. (Picture 1) I feel like these both correlate because both of these situations dealt with someone having to lose and sell something that they had very precious to them. The receipt shows that they only received twenty seven dollars for one ring. This really shows that people were taking advantage of the poor circumstances that the Japanese Americas were put into.
“I could see a few tents set up, the first rows of black barracks, and beyond them, blurred by sand, rows of barracks that seemed to spread for miles across this plain.” (Wakatsuki Houston 37)The vast depth and enormity of camp Manzanar was talked about quite a lot in the book. They describe it as a huge sandy compound. With lots of barracks, restrooms or “latrine”, and after everyone was settled in, they made buildings for religion, schools, hospitals, and activity buildings. In another picture I found on the Jarda website, was of a man standing on a hill, with an overlook of the compound in the background. (Picture 2) This really helped put into perspective the large amount of land that they were living on. There was so many barracks, and on all sides of them, was just sand and mountains. In one part, Jeanne talks about being able to hike up to one of the mountains with a bunch of other little girls for a camp out with a Caucasian leader from the War Relocation Authority. “As fourth and fifth graders we usually hiked out to camp One, on the edge of Bairs’s Creek, where we could wade, collect rocks, and sit on the bank eating lunches the mess hall crew packed for us.” (Wakatsuki Houston 115) So as time passed while they were still trapped in the internment camp, they would allow them to travel outside the gates a little bit and explore the surrounding lands. As long as it was supervised by someone outside the camp. In an effort to make things more comfortable for themselves, a lot of the Japanese Americans come up with ways to keep traditions alive, build activities for the kids, establish jobs to keep older people busy, and town meetings to insure everyone is involved with the creation and progress of that town. I found a picture captured at one of the dances they had while in the internment camp. (Picture 3) It looks as if it might be from a high school dance, or maybe even an event that they had. They really made it like a miniature town with churches, convenient stores, schools, and even a full hospital. Having people to work for these facilities brought about plenty of jobs for those who wanted to work. “…But in most ways it was a totally equipped American small town, complete with schools, churches, boy scouts, beauty parlors, neighborhood gossip, fire and police departments, glee clubs, softball leagues, Abbott and Costello movies, tennis courts, and traveling shows.” (Wakatsuki Houston 109) In many cases, the occupations that people had out in the real world, they could acquire once again in the internment camp. Jeanne’s mother was a nutritionist in the outside world. So she was put into the hospital and went around to all of the chow halls to make sure they were giving good food items for a balanced diet, and to also assist people with allergies or pregnant women to eat the right things. This little internment camp really turned into a fully functioning town by the time everyone settled in. Many people, such as papa, did not want to work or be involved with any activities. So for anyone who wanted to just stay inside or just wonder around the large camp, they could.
In another picture, it shows that the internment camp had its own news paper as well. (Picture 4) You can see the different titles on the front page with little stories. As you can see in the upper-right titled story, it reads ‘Residents try home-made tofu’. I feel like this gives a little insight on how it was like during these times. It is interesting t think that a person having tofu would even make the paper. This shows that they were really deprived of simple things and kind of made-due with what they had. I also think it is funny that it made the paper, cause that obviously means there was nothing more interesting to talk about during that papers time period. Which I would take as a good thing. And on some papers, it gave news of the outside world and kept updates on the war. But this would only be information that the military that was standing guard at the gates would pass on to the people, or sometimes it would be given through letters from family in the outside world. In my last picture, you can see that they got regular letters like everyone else. Expect each of their letters was looked over and changed by an examiner. (Picture 5) “Letters from [papa] trickled in, once or twice a month, with half the words blacked out,” (Wakatsuki Houston 55) The government was trying to be so careful that information didn’t leak in or out of the internment camps, that they would go the lengths of going through everyone’s mail and blacking out a majority of them. In reality, a majority of the people in the internment camps were not spies, nor were they giving any information to the “enemy”. This lead to a complete lack of privacy that the people living in the internment camp had no say in.
While living in the camp, many people seemed to be content with the amount of comfort they had made for themselves. They had education, food, and a vast variety of activities and jobs to keep themselves busy and productive. From the accounts of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, the only stress they seemed to have was family quarrels that came when Papa joined them. They had downfalls with their systems, and had a complete lack of privacy when it came to getting mail and bathrooms. But none of these things seemed to bother anyone too much, as they had accepted their fate, that being in the internment camp is how they were going to live, so they might as well get comfortable.
Picture 5
Picture 3
Picture 2
Picture [ 1 ] Picture 4