Farewell To Manzanar And The Experience Of Interntment Camps

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The author grew up in a time when there were many changes in our country. After Pearl Harbor there was a lot of fear in the country for what might come next. Unfortunately, this meant that a lot of innocent people were punished for nothing. We learn the story of Pearl Harbor in all of our history classes growing up. We learn how terrible it was and how many of our people died. However, we didn’t learn that much about how the US handled the situation.

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We did not learn much about internment camps. I believe that the authors purpose of writing this book was simply to educate people about what it was like. It wasn’t to say how terrible it was or out of anger for how she was treated, it was simply telling the story of how she grew up and her experience of the Peal Harbor attack.

Originally the author lived in Ocean Park as the only Japanese family because they didn’t want to be labeled because of their race.

She lived in a big house with plenty of room for all her family. The neighborhood was a block from the beach where her father would leave from the port to go out fishing. It was a quiet and safe neighborhood for them to live in. Her teacher in Ocean Park was a kind old lady who was always supportive and helpful.

After her father was taken, she moved to Terminal Island which was mostly Japanese people.

Her mother felt safer surrounded by her people and her culture. Moving to the island was like moving to another country for Jeanne. She didn’t understand their language or a lot of their culture. They spoke sort of a slang version of Japanese with lots of insults and nicknames from their native part of Japan. Her brother and she were always fearful that one of their school mates was going to attack them because they only spoke English. They would run home or try new routes. No one ever actually attacked them, it was just the fear that made their time on Terminal Island an unpleasant period.

When she moved to Boyle Heights, she first felt hostility from a white person, her teacher. Jeanne was behind and having trouble in school because of all the moving that they had to do. The teacher was cold, distant, and unwilling to help her. Looking back, she says that it is obvious why the teacher was this way. There was a newfound fear of Asian people in the community that had not been felt for a long time. Before she moved to Terminal Island or Boyle Heights, she didn’t seem to have much of a racial identity. She was still a young child and didn’t notice any hostility or differences that her skin may have caused. It was only when she moved that she began to feel like an outsider in some way.

While she was in Manzanar, she became really interested in the Catholic faith. She wasn’t very interested in the actual religion aspect of it but more so in the image of the little girls that she saw walking down the road by her house. She loved their dresses and how pretty they looked. She also felt the need to belong to something and to have a group. This angered her father, and he would not allow that she get baptized. If she was a member of the church she wouldn’t be able to marry a Japanese man like her father wanted her to.

While she was in the camp, she also wanted to learn the traditional Japanese dance, Odori. She thought that it was beautiful and elegant. Once she began her lessons, she changed her mind. The geisha lady was very old and spoke in a dialect that Jeanne didn’t understand. After attending one class she decided not to go anymore. She was still interested in the geisha though. She asked other girls in her class what she was teaching them. They told her that she needed to rub Rose Brilliante Hair Tonic on her face and cold cream in her hair so that she would have good skin. She also told them that they needed to recognize her clothing and to always wear her stockings inside out and never wear under wear. She tried both of these things in secret from her mother. Eventually she got caught and her mother forbid her from talking to the girls still in the class.

She also tried ballet, even though she had never actually seen ballet. When she got there she was surprised at what her teacher looked like. As the teacher been dancing Jeanne could tell that she had once been a good dancer but was now overweight and disappointing. She also looked at her thick legs and referred to them as horseradish legs. She is interested in the funny shape of her ballet shoes and how they warn down and frayed. When the teacher took a break and took off her shoes, Jeanne saw her bloody feet and then looked at the creases in the face of a woman that wasn’t very old. After that she decided that ballet was a misuse of the body and she would not be participating in that.

Her most successful activity was baton twirling. The class was taught by a fourteen year old girl and Jeanne had to use a sawed off broomstick at first. Her mother didn’t want to order her one until she was sure that she was going to stick with it. She practiced for months and joined the club at her school. She even entered into competitions. She loved baton almost obsessively. Later when she was going to school in southern California she returned to this hobby and that gave her a sense of belonging at her new school.

Leaving Manzanar was an adjustment for Jeanne. She had to learn her new role as a kid in a regular school. Friendships were hard for her. Making friends depended on whether or not their parents would allow Jeanne to come into their house. She got involved in many activities in high school. She was the newspaper editor and held an office in the Girls Athletic Association. She wanted to join girl scouts but she wasn’t allowed to. She asked the troop leaders daughter if she could join the group but when that girl asked her mom, her mother said no. Her senior year in high school, her homeroom class nominated her to be in the running for carnival queen. She was among fifteen girls and she knew she wasn’t going to win. One of her friends came rushing to her one day because he overheard students and teachers stuffing the ballot to make sure that Jeanne wouldn’t win. She was indifferent to the discovery. She said so what if I don’t win, if the other girl wants it so badly then let her have it. The boy was not ok with this though, so he went and complained until the ballots were fair. Then Jeanne heard her name being called for the winner. This however was a turning point, the fact that she didn’t care what happened shows that she was learning to accept herself for who she was and didn’t need others validation.

Looking back on her time at Manzanar, Jeanne realized that she no longer wanted to erase that part of her life. She realized that her life started there and it was a big part of who she was. She was no longer mad about it, but instead accepting that it was a part of her life. I think that because she still lived in a fearful mindset for twenty-five years after leaving Manzanar that she was still fearful that she may have to return. However, when she discovered herself as an individual who could fit into the community, she lost that fear and was able to live her life without the constant worrying.

If Jeanne was forced back into Manzanar, I think she would handle it differently. She has now accepted herself as an individual. Given that I believe, she would fight back more for her place in society. She knows that she has a right to the same things as everyone else therefore, there is no reason that she should be singled out. Jeanne also points out several times in the book that when she looks back, she is disappointed in herself for acting so passively about how she was treated. When people wouldn’t be friends with her because she was Japanese she just let it happen. When she wasn’t allowed to join the girl scouts, she just accepted in and moved on. She now realizes that she could have done more for herself that could have helped her find who she is more quickly.

When comparing the internment camps after Pearl Harbor and Guantanamo Bay after 9/11 we can find several similarities and differences. The internment camps were placed in areas where they could easily contain lots of people. For instance; racetracks, fairgrounds, or places far away from cities where they could build little communities. Guantanamo Bay is on an island of Cuba. Guantanamo Bay was established to hold suspected terrorists after the 9/11 attacks. It was a place to hold people for interrogation and to commit people for war crimes. However, due to the accusations of abuse and the indefinite detention without trial, the prison has been determined to be unconstitutional and is being shut down. This is very similar to the internment camps because people were placed there with no idea when or if they were getting out. It is also similar because they were established to prevent acts of terrorism and betrayal against the United States. While there wasn’t any direct violence at the camps like Manzanar, there was abuse when the men were taken places to be interrogated. They could be beaten and harassed to get information, much like the accusations of Guantanamo Bay. It is also similar the way that the prisoners were let out. Neither of them knew if they were ever going to be let out. People were still locked up in the internment camps long after the war with Japan ended. They stayed there until the people decided that leaving them there was not fair and unconstitutional. The same thing is now happening at Guantanamo Bay. A difference would be that the people in Guantanamo Bay are specifically suspected of terrorist behavior. The internment camps were simply everyone that looked Japanese. Also, life in the internment camps was terrible but they were still able to live semi normal lives. They were still with their families and they could go to work, school, church, and extracurricular activities. Guantanamo Bay is simply a prison with regular prison facilities and schedules.