Manzanar is a dusty, dirty, windy desert setting with extreme weather conditions. As their bus pulled in, “The bus was being pelted by what sounded like splattering rain.”, but in fact, it was blowing sand driven by the March winds. I cannot imagine the emotions that must have been going through the people’s minds as they were driven through the gates, past the barbed-wire fencing, so many people, worried and fearful. Thankfully, a child’s naivety and innocence takes over and as they come to a stop Jeanne yells out “Hey! This whole bus is full of Wakatsukis!” the tension is broken by the following laughter.

Even that first day at Manzanar it was obvious there would be problems, fruit over rice? What an outrage, yet fear and

In closing, the Japanese people were introduced to multiple hardships when forced into the relocation camps, and through their own pride and determination they managed to live, and even somewhat thrive at Manzanar under what should have been totally demoralizing conditions.

For the first year the Wakatsuki’s were at Manzanar, they had to live without “Papa”. Ko Wakatsuki is the patriarch of the family, he did not go to Manzanar with the family because he had been arrested and was imprisoned at Fort Henry as a spy. Eventually the military determined he was not a spy and then released him, and he was sent to Manzanar to be with his family. Papa started out in the story as a strong, traditional man of great pride and dignity, Manzanar transforms him into a man full of shame and fury, a bitter, sad man. “No one could pacify him. Mama got nothing but threats and abuse for her attempts to comfort him.” Papa had lost both of his countries and felt helpless, and hopeless, he ended up “pursuing oblivion through drink…” He never fully recovers, Manzanar is the ending point of Papa’s life as he knew it. While Jeanne sees Manzanar as where her own life truly began, she also sees that her father was never the same, in her eyes, in the family’

Some topics in this essay:
Manzanar Manzanar, Effectively Japanese, Fort Henry, Jeanne Manzanar, Manzanar WWII, Japanese-Americans Jeanne, Manzanar Runs”, Ko Wakatsuki, Wakatsuki’s Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki’s, japanese people, family manzanar, manzanar family,