Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki and James Houston. (2002). Farewell To Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After World War II Internment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 208 pages.

Grade Range: 10-12

Genre: nonfiction

Summary and Critique

This memoir, based on Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's experience, explores her trials of living in a Japanese internment camp. The young girl tries to make the best of the situation but sees the pain and suffering that her parents must experience in order to survive. Her father was taken away for a year before he is returned to his family. He does not discuss what happened to him, and he begins to drink to try to forget. After they are freed and permitted to go home, she explains the prejudice she experiences while trying to readjust to life in an American high school. While getting involved in school, she abandons her Japanese heritage, a decision she later regrets making.

The authors offer a nice outline of the events of World War II in the beginning of the b4teens_book. Unfortunately, a primary problem with this book is that the story is told in memory flashes. Sometimes this can be confusing when trying to keep the correct order of events. However, this chosen style is relevant to the way Houston is remembering the events that occurred when she was a child. The authors'style is not particularly poetic, but the historical significance compensates for that.

Themes/Topics

Families

Friends and Enemies

Generations

Race, Ethnicity, and Culture

Challenges and Triumphs

War and Peace

Author Information

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was seven years old when she and her family were imprisoned at Manzanar internment camp. Eventually, they were freed but faced many struggles throughout the years. She and John Houston, also a California native, met in college and married in 1957. Together they wrote this novel as a cathartic process for Jeanne. James has also written books about life in California.

For more information on the Houstons:

http://www.ncteamericancollection.org/litmap/houstons_jeane_ca.htm Biographical information.

Media Connections

Movies

Snow Falling on Cedars (1999) A love story set in the time period of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor (2001) The story of the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

The New Americans (2004) An excellent series that explores immigrant experiences from Nigeria, Palestine, Bangalore, Mexico, and Asia.

Roots in the Sand (2000) A program about pioneering Punjabi-Mexican families that come to live in America.

Online Resources

http://www.sdcoe.k12.ca.us/score/manz/manztg.html This site provides four activities that a class could do with this b4teens_book. Along with each writing assignment there are links to research information and prewriting ideas like Venn diagrams.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/manzanar/ This site provides a summary, context, themes, analysis, characters, chapters and commentary, study questions, and review quiz.

http://www.laspositascollege.edu/library/bibjapam.php A list of websites about the history of this camp and others like it.

http://www.csupomona.edu/~tassi/manzanar.htm A brief description of a unit on this book and The Diary of Anne Frank.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/newamericans/ Information about PBS's series titled The New Americans, which discusses the immigrant experience in the 21^st century.

Related Texts

Morrison, Joan and Charlotte Fox Zabusky. (1993). American Mosaic: The Immigrant Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. 457pp. An anthology of nonfiction stories about the immigration experience.

Uchida, Yoshika. (1993). The Bracelet. New York: Philomel Books. A Japanese girl and her family are sent to an internment camp where she learns that memories are more important than possessions.

Taylor, Mildred. (1976). Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry New York: Dial Press. 276pp. Cassie, a twelve-year old girl, comes of age in a small 1930's Mississippi town filled with racism, hatred, injustice, and poverty.

Say, Allen. (1993). Grandfather's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 32pp. Caldecott Medal winner. Say describes his grandfather's immigration to America and the complex love both men have for their native land of Japan and for America.

Sachar, Louis. (1998). Holes. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux. 233pp. A teenage boy is accused of stealing a pair of shoes, and for punishment he must work in a bizarre juvenile detention center/labor camp.

Talese, Gay. (1992). Unto the Sons. New York: Alfred Knopf. 635pp. An Italian man immigrates to the U.S., only to experience pain and discrimination during World War II.

Inada, Lawson Fusao. (1993). Legends from Camp. New York: Coffee House Press. 177pp. Through both poetry and prose, a man describes his experiences in a Japanese internment camp as well as later life experiences.

Teaching Ideas

(1) "War and Peace" Teachers create book groups in which the classes choose to read from a list of the following books: Farewell to Manzanar, All Quiet on the Western Front, Fallen Angels, Night, and Zlata's Diary. All of these books share the same topic and theme of war and peace. Students research the war that their novel discusses while they are reading. To bring the novels together in discussion, the teacher brings in poems, short stories, and essays that share the same theme and discuss similarities and differences. To be organized in book groups, students use a clipboard with paper, bookmarks and post-its, and role logs or hats to make sure everyone plays a part in discussion. At the end of the unit, students create banners with pictures and quotes that represent their book and research and then share it with other groups that read a different novel. The class then creates a banner that represents the similarities and differences of all the books. Teachers have students write about what they learned through the process.

[Summarized/adapted from "Materials and Role Sheets" by Harvey Daniels in Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. October 1997. pp.9-11.]

(2) "Circle Discussions" Teachers teach this novel as the central book in the class. Students interview veterans in their family or at school to find out information about war in general. They research in the library for more detailed accounts of the bombing or Pearl Harbor. After learning about the history, students then add what they learn in the novel into their essay or poster and use it for discussion or presentations in class. With this knowledge students have an"inner-outer circle discussion" with questions such as: Why did Jeanne's father react like he did when he returned to his family in the camp? If more people would have protested the treatment of the Japanese, how would this story have been different? If this happened to a group of people today in your school or city, how would you react?

[Summarized/adapted from "Connecting with Veterans on Veterans Day" by Jerry Ellsworth in Notes Plus. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. January 1999. pp.9-11.]

(3) "An Accompaniment" Teachers offer this book as one to read for SSR. Students choose from a variety of activities like burning a CD to go along with the book, or writing another ending, or painting a portrait of the main characters. At the end of the six weeks, students share their assignments and at the same time share information about this novel in hopes that others may become interested. Students should add a rating as well.

(Review written by Amy Vetter and edited by Jennifer E. Moore)