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Farewell to Manzanar | 
 enlarge | Authors: James D. Houston, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $8.00
You Save: $8.00 (50%)
New (26) from $8.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  223 reviews
Sales Rank: 46386
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Ages 9-12
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.9 x 0.8
ISBN: 0618216200
Dewey Decimal Number: 940.54727309794
UPC: 046442216203
EAN: 9780618216208
ASIN: 0618216200
Publication Date: April 29, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: in great condition, no bent pages or corners.
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Product Description
During World War II a community called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose was to house thousands of Japanese American internees. One of the first families to arrive was the Wakatsukis, who were ordered to leave their fishing business in Long Beach and take with them only the belongings they could carry. For Jeanne Wakatsuki, a seven-year-old child, Manzanar became a way of life in which she struggled and adapted, observed and grew. For her father it was essentially the end of his life.
At age thirty-seven, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was. She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and great resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Written with her husband, Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar.
Farewell to Manzanar has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. Last year the San Francisco Chronicle named it one of the twentieth century's 100 best nonfiction books from west of the Rockies.
Download Description
The U.S. government's internment of 120,000 Asian Americans in the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 is a thorny era that many Americans have chosen to ignore. Farewell to Manzanar is a factual narrative by Jeanne Toyo Wakatsuki and James D. Houston that follows Jeanne, her family, and 30,000 other Asian Americans along a three-decade-long journey of silent denial and racial degradation.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 218 more reviews...
 Satisfaction Guaranteed August 20, 2008
I was very satisfied with the level of customer service that I received from Amazon.com. As a student, I am always on the lookout for ways to save money and Amazon.com has become one of my new favorite websites.
 manzanar July 26, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
my 14 year old daughter, who is a reading fanatic, had to read this book for english over the summer. she said the book was well written but was not entertaining.
Painful Personal Testimony on a Shameful American Act July 26, 2008
I could not believe there were one-star reviews until I read them and saw they were written by kids. Obviously part of their 8th grade class assignment was to write a review of the book for Amazon.com. This book is really not for junior-high level kids, as they will find it boring. And unless they are familiar with Asian-American culture or know somebody who is Asian-American, it will be difficult for them to relate to this book at all. One kid reviewer said the book might have been better if there was violence! Those kids would have been better off watching the Made-For-TV movie that was based on the book.
It is of great interest to those wanting to learn about this shameful part of American history, and for those wanting to learn about Asian American history. As a mother of a half-Asian son, this will definitely be a book he needs to read. I applaud Jean Wakasuki-Houston for writing this book, and to me, it rates up there as a must-read with "The Diary of Anne Frank." Both are important testimonies to the horrors and racism of WWII, and hopefully future generations can learn from them.
This part of American history has been swept under the rug. July 24, 2008
Farewell to Manzanar is the autobiography of Jeanne Wakatsuki, who was seven years old in 1942, when the U.S. government forced Japanese-American families from their homes, and relocated them to internment camps. She tells the story of life at the Manzanar camp, as well as her family's difficulty in resuming a normal life after the camp closed, including her personal struggle to fit in with white kids at school.
Just prior to the internment, Jeanne's father was arrested in Los Angeles County and taken to North Dakota. He was a fisherman, and they charged him with delivering oil to Japanese submarines. During interrogation, he explained that the 50-gallon drums on his boat contained bait, not oil. His interrogator asked, "Who do you want to win this war?" He answered, "When your mother and your father are having a fight, do you want them to kill each other? Or do you want them to stop fighting?"
One amusing part of the story is about how the camp residents entertained themselves. "He didn't sing Don't Fence Me In out of protest... It just happened to be a hit song."
Woven into the story are historically significant facts. Ironically, while being held captive as a threat to the country, second-generation Japanese-American men were drafted into the Army. Many accepted the call, and others even volunteered prior to being drafted. However, some fought in court, and a judge in San Francisco ruled in their favor. In a separate case, the Supreme Court ruled in December of 1944 that the government cannot detain loyal citizens against their will. Within the next year, the camps were closed.
This part of American history has been swept under the rug. 110,000 Japanese-Americans were relocated to 10 inland camps. Wakatsuki documents her experience in the form of a relatable, human story.
Never forget July 20, 2008
Farewell to Manzanar is not a book I will ever forget. Although many years have passed since I first read this book, the story of the Japanese-American families sent to an internment camp still resonates. It's a beautifully written memoir of an egregious wrong.
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