Farewell to Manzanar
By: Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston / Narrated By: Jennifer Ikeda
Length: 4 hrs and 59 mins
A young girl’s account of Internment—very good, tho’ a trifle sad…
Farewell to Manzanar is sad not only because of the injustice of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII but because taking the Japanese Americans damned near totally destroyed their culture, one that was rich in family, steeped in traditions of honor and loyalty.
Jeanne Wakatsuki is only seven years old when she and her family are sent to Manazanar, forced to leave all they own, all they hold dear, behind. Her father is imprisoned for colluding with the enemy—the feds say he refueled Japanese submarines, but this is purely hysterical conjecture on their part.
Still, it means that when the family gets to the camp, they have lost their patriarch. Not only that, they lost family customs because they’re forced to eat communally in a mess hall at specified times, rather than in their closely bonded unit, eating and sharing their days as a family.
In the camp (which has horrific conditions), they’re also Americanized with ballet lessons, Boy Scouts (and later, when Jeanne is out of the Manzanar, she will NOT be accepted into the Girls Scouts!), sock hops, and the young men are forced to sign oaths of loyalty. Old ways will die, replaced by a new culture, one that’ll not have them once they’re back in America.
This is a very nice, tho’ short, audiobook, and Jennifer Ikeda narrates the voice of young Jeanne well, capturing her confusion, capturing her tenacity and hope for a better life. She also does a great job with the other people in young Jeanne’s life, even her father when he’s out of confinement and is a broken man now, living with his fractured family at Manzanar.
What I appreciated about the book the most was that it also covered Jeanne’s life post-Manzanar, showing how she tried desperately to be “just like anyone else”, and even went on to be friends with white kids; at least those whose families didn’t object to a Japanese American girl as friend to their children.
Jeanne tried to put everything behind her, tried to tuck it all away, never to see the light of day. But as she aged, it became important for her to tell her children and grandchildren what life was like, what they all went through. Thus, Farewell to Manzanar came into being. It is beyond her own upbringing and relies on some research and interviews with family members as well.
This book is mightily appropriate for younger folk, but I do believe you’ll like it as well! It’s tragic; it’s uplifting; it’s a short version of a story that deserves to be heard.
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