A book that I think relates to this class would be, Farewell To Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatuski Houston and James D. Houston. James was Jeanne’s husband who helped her write and publish her story. This memoir is telling a story of a Japanes family that lived through the bombing of Pearl Harbor, World War II, and horrible living situations the family was put through after the bombing and during the war. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and her 9 other siblings were all Nisei which meant they were the second generation of a Japanese person and were all born in Englewood, California. Their family was uprooted from their home like many other Japanese American families after the Attack on Pearl Harbor that started World War II and at the time Jeanne was only seven years old. This book is about the hardships her family endured while being sent away into detention camps for being “the enemy” during the war.
Many times during this semester I have thought about how this book relates to this class. The book The March, about John Lewis’ hardships he faced while protesting for equality. In this book Jeanne is literally put in a detention camp for being Japanese just like Deming’s mom in the book The Leavers.
The Japanese Americans suffered a great deal during the time of World War II. About seventy thousand Japanese families living in America were taken from their homes and sent to live in internment camps. A lot of Japanese families were detained because American officials thought they were disloyal and were in contact with the Japanese military and that’s how the Japanese knew to attack at Pearl Harbor. This shows injustice towards all Japanese families living in America.https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/FarewelltoManzanarCover.jpg