Farewell to Manzanar With Connections

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Summary: Review of Farewell to Manzanar
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. This book went through and discussed life for a Japanese Americans during World War 11. I find it hard to believe that the Americans were over in Europe fighting to help the Europeans and save the Jews within the concentration camps yet the Americans were doing the same thing to there own people. This book goes through and talks about how the Japanese Internment camps became part of Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's life. She was only seven at the time but she goes through and explains how everything started to change after Pearl Harbor. Even though she was a true American citizen she was taken out of her home with her family and forced to live in a certain camp, Manzanar. I find it amazing how her family as well as other families there were able to start up a new town and carry on life as though nothing really changed. Even though the living conditions and food wasn't very good they were able to make due with what they had. I found it dissappointing when Jeanne wrote that by being in the camps it in a way broke down their way of life. This was because it was no longer just a family time, rather it was just being with friends in Jeanne's case or just not being able to find time to be together as a family. From my point of view it seemed that life in Manzanar was Jeanne's home for her and she spent her childhood growing up there. I think that this book gives a good insight to what life was like for the Japanese Americans living in the United States. For these people the war changed there way of life in their homeland. They had to reform a way of life and I think this book depicts a good example of what they did to make life in Manzanar better for everyone.