For several years, I've been looking for the definitive book about the interment of Japanese Americans during WWII. While Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston is not that book, it is a good book on the subject.
Author Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was interred at Mazanar when she was seven years old and this is her story. There are parts of the story that hit hard, but so much of the story is telling - relating experiences without any dialogue that I felt like I was listening to someone give a speech or a talk about their experience. I didn't feel like I was in the situation. This book was written thirty years after her interment began, so she had time to process what had happened and try to make sense of it.
I was saddened to see how much her family lost because of their interment and how her father was treated because he was a commercial fisherman. Her telling of the story gave me hope for other children who endure hard situations because although things were hard for her and her family, she seemed quite resilient.
When it came time to shut down the camp and send people home, they no longer had homes or jobs to return to. On page 132, she writes, "The truth was, at this point Papa did not know which way to turn. In the government's eyes a free man now, he sat, like those black slaves you hear about who, when they got word of their freedom at the end of the Civil War, just did not know where else to go or what else to do and ended up back on the plantation, rooted there out of habit or lethargy or fear." Jeanne was the youngest of nine children. Her father needed to work, but he had lost his boats because of the interment, and because of the war, a law was passed making it illegal for anyone of Japanese descent to hold a commercial fishing license.
This account shows the danger to our society when people act out of fear instead of kindness or love. This book was published in 1973 and is well worth reading if you are interested in learning more about this topic.
Read to a child today even if that child is you.
Author Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was interred at Mazanar when she was seven years old and this is her story. There are parts of the story that hit hard, but so much of the story is telling - relating experiences without any dialogue that I felt like I was listening to someone give a speech or a talk about their experience. I didn't feel like I was in the situation. This book was written thirty years after her interment began, so she had time to process what had happened and try to make sense of it.
I was saddened to see how much her family lost because of their interment and how her father was treated because he was a commercial fisherman. Her telling of the story gave me hope for other children who endure hard situations because although things were hard for her and her family, she seemed quite resilient.
When it came time to shut down the camp and send people home, they no longer had homes or jobs to return to. On page 132, she writes, "The truth was, at this point Papa did not know which way to turn. In the government's eyes a free man now, he sat, like those black slaves you hear about who, when they got word of their freedom at the end of the Civil War, just did not know where else to go or what else to do and ended up back on the plantation, rooted there out of habit or lethargy or fear." Jeanne was the youngest of nine children. Her father needed to work, but he had lost his boats because of the interment, and because of the war, a law was passed making it illegal for anyone of Japanese descent to hold a commercial fishing license.
This account shows the danger to our society when people act out of fear instead of kindness or love. This book was published in 1973 and is well worth reading if you are interested in learning more about this topic.
Read to a child today even if that child is you.
Link to our NICU book registry if you'd like to donate books to babies in the newborn intensive care unit.
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