Farewell To Manzanar Essay

The book, Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is a non-fiction book that takes place in the desert like land below the Sierra Mountains in California. It happens during the 1940’s right after the country of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The book starts off telling about the author’s family the Wakatsukis the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. It tells how they owed 2 fishing boats. They had a car and a nice home. The United States government decides that most of the Japanese Americans should be put into prison like camps. The government says they are afraid that the Japanese Americans will help out Japan in the war. The Japanese Americans are put into these camps without trials or any evidence against them. It because of discrimination …show more content…
She was 7 years old when her family was put into one of the camps. The author uses first person point of views in most of the book and she also uses third point of view sometimes when she is talking about an event where she wasn’t there. When Jeanne and her family are put into the camp her father is sent to a different camp. The government wants to grill him to see if he has been spying for the Japanese. He was never spying for the Japanese. When her father was finally brought to the camp where her family was he was a broken man. He was a proud man that didn’t do anything wrong and he was treated with no respect. Jeanne’s older brother starts to be the one that the family goes to for advice. It is her story and how she saw things. Her mom and dad and the older people probably saw things different because they understood more. The first time it really hit Jeanne that being in the prison was a bad thing is when she was walking around the camp and walks by the fences. She starts throwing rocks through the holes. One of the guards in a tower yells down at her. He says, “Stop, throwing those rocks or I will arrest you!” She yells back at him, “Aren’t we already arrested?” The guard doesn’t say anything back to her. Jeanne runs back to the place where her family is now living. She doesn’t like the fences. She decides then that the camp is bad like everyone

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