- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Laurel Leaf Library; Reissue edition (Mar 2004)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0553272586
- ISBN-13: 978-0553272581
- Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 1.7 x 17.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
485,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #79 in Books > Biography > Social & Health Issues > Cultural History > Japanese
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Product Description
Product Description
Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when her family was uprooted from their home and sent to live at Manzanar internment camp--with 10,000 other Japanese Americans. Along with searchlight towers and armed guards, Manzanar ludicrously featured cheerleaders, Boy Scouts, sock hops, baton twirling lessons and a dance band called the Jive Bombers who would play any popular song except the nation's #1 hit: "Don't Fence Me In."
Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.
Farewell to Manzanar is the true story of one spirited Japanese-American family's attempt to survive the indignities of forced detention . . . and of a native-born American child who discovered what it was like to grow up behind barbed wire in the United States.
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On that first weekend in December there must have been twenty or twenty-five boats getting ready to leave. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
On that first weekend in December there must have been twenty or twenty-five boats getting ready to leave. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
When Japan attacked Pearl Harbour and America and Japan were at war, a problem arose as to what to do with the thousands of naturalised Japanese living in the States. They couldn't be returned to Japan but nor could they be left to live freely within the US. The country's solution to the problem was to build huge internment camps in the American desert and ship everyone out there for the duration of the war. This was done very hastily and when 7 year old Jeanne and her family arrived they found only the most basic of provision. They lived in cramped "barracks" with foul toilet facilities and suffered repeated sickness due to insanitary food storage.
Conditions improved during their stay; schooling was provided and recreational facilities, classes to keep internees occupied, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts etc.
Eventually, when the whole enterprise was ruled illegal by American legislation, many of the internees did not want to leave. They had heard tales of Japanese "on the outside" receiving abuse from Americans for their country's part in the war, even though many Japanese chose to prove their loyalty by fighting for America in the armed forces.
They had become so conditioned to life in the camps that they could not envisage starting up again elsewhere.
The younger members of Jeanne's family left to make a way for themselves but her parents, herself and her brother stayed until the last moment - when Jeanne's father saved face by leaving with a flourish!
The book is an interesting comment on the effects of this loss of freedom on the Japanese culture, particularly its effect on her father's pride. It's a short little book but says all that is needed within its concise 145 pages.
Conditions improved during their stay; schooling was provided and recreational facilities, classes to keep internees occupied, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts etc.
Eventually, when the whole enterprise was ruled illegal by American legislation, many of the internees did not want to leave. They had heard tales of Japanese "on the outside" receiving abuse from Americans for their country's part in the war, even though many Japanese chose to prove their loyalty by fighting for America in the armed forces.
They had become so conditioned to life in the camps that they could not envisage starting up again elsewhere.
The younger members of Jeanne's family left to make a way for themselves but her parents, herself and her brother stayed until the last moment - when Jeanne's father saved face by leaving with a flourish!
The book is an interesting comment on the effects of this loss of freedom on the Japanese culture, particularly its effect on her father's pride. It's a short little book but says all that is needed within its concise 145 pages.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
FAREWELL TO MANZANAR is the chilling autobiography of a Japanese-American girl who survived the interment camps during World War II.
When I began reading this book I had no idea what the "interment" camps were. This is a subject that not many know about and is not a very well-known time in history. "Internment" camps were camps that the American government put together after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to house all of the Japanese-Americans who lived on the west coast. The people were forced to go and didn't have a choice, even if they were born in America and only had Japanese ancestry. The camps were in the middle of the desert, so that the people wouldn't be able to leave.
At first I didn't like the book very much. But as I kept reading I began to like it. I can't say that I loved it, because I didn't; it's not a "loving" type of story. I enjoyed learning about something that I knew nothing about.
I think all Americans should read this book so that they know that this happened. It is not something that is often talked about, but it should be, so that every American citizen knows about this part that the government played in World War II.
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
When I began reading this book I had no idea what the "interment" camps were. This is a subject that not many know about and is not a very well-known time in history. "Internment" camps were camps that the American government put together after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor to house all of the Japanese-Americans who lived on the west coast. The people were forced to go and didn't have a choice, even if they were born in America and only had Japanese ancestry. The camps were in the middle of the desert, so that the people wouldn't be able to leave.
At first I didn't like the book very much. But as I kept reading I began to like it. I can't say that I loved it, because I didn't; it's not a "loving" type of story. I enjoyed learning about something that I knew nothing about.
I think all Americans should read this book so that they know that this happened. It is not something that is often talked about, but it should be, so that every American citizen knows about this part that the government played in World War II.
Reviewed by: Taylor Rector
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book many years ago and I've never forgotten the impact it had on my life. It's a sensitive and startling portrayal of a young woman's life and the upheaval she and her family suffered. I was stunned to hear a coworker of mine from the Midwest admit that she didn't know the Japanese in America had been interned during WWII. It wasn't until she was 28 and had read Snow Falling on Cedars that she had any awareness at all of that tragic event. Books that enrich this generation about our shared past should be revived in the schoolroom.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Boredom...
is the best way to describe this book. It may depecit the reality of a part of the war many did not see, but it wasn't at all interesting. Read more
Published on 29 Aug 1999
This is a terrific book, very exciting to read.
Mrs.Wakatsuki did an excellent job of writing this book. I'm glad that I got the chance to read this. Read more
Published on 10 July 1999
Truthful and Heartwarming
This book was a very historical event that a lot of teenagers have no idea about. Before this book I had no idea about Manzanar. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 1999
I would of liked it if i read it faster!!
The book Farwell To Manzanar was picked out by are teacher. I would of like it if we read it faster. Read more
Published on 3 May 1999
A girl who read it and began to like it.
A teacher picked this book out for me to read as a book report. She said I would like it and at first I thought it was dumb, but then I started getting into it and I began to... Read more
Published on 20 April 1999
Plaintive memoir about being a Japanese American
I bought this memoir for our church library because it is an excellent personal story about living in a Japanese-American internment camp during World War Two. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 1999
This is a great book.
This book is about a Japanese American child detained in an internment camp with her family in 1945 during W. W. II. Read more
Published on 26 Feb 1999
An underrated classic -- explores the real 'America'
A book not written, but recorded--an indirect style more real than our own lives. This is truth--a modern "aufshcrei" against an American ethnocentrism and xenophobia... Read more
Published on 7 Jan 1999
Farewell to Manzanar reports history subjectively
Most kids in American schools never get to learn about the bad things the U.S. government does. When learning about World War II, it's always, "The Nazi's are so evil. Read more
Published on 4 Aug 1998
American treatment to Japanese during WWII
this book is written in first person by Jeanne Wakatsuki. It starts out when Japan bombs Pearl Harbor. The FBI then sends all of the Japanese living in the U.S. Read more
Published on 1 July 1998
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