Coming of Age in a Wartime Environment

After Pearl Harbor, people were making generalizations and stereotyping Japanese Americans. “For it was true, they all looked alike. Black hair. Slanted eyes. High cheekbones. Thick glasses. Thin lips. Bad teeth. Unknowable. Inscrutable (Otsuka 49). People tended to stereotype that Asian people “all look alike” which shows that nobody took the effort to know them personally. The mother is unable to cope with the reality of the present so she retreats into her past memories. Her depression takes over as the camp will slowly chip away at her

In the story of Japanese imprisonment, Farewell to Manzanar, readers follow a young American girl, Jeanne, as she grows up in an internment camp during World War II. Despite being American, Jeanne and other people of Japanese descent are continually attacked due to the racism bred by the American government. They attack her and these people in a variety of forms such as isolation, disrespect, and avoidance.

Disregarding the past years spent at an internment camp, the years that disassembled her family into a blur of oblivion, Jeanne chose to familiarize herself with the American way. Although forbidden U.S. citizenship, she made numerous attempts to Americanize herself, opting for such standings as Girl Scout, baton leader, Homecoming Queen. However competent and capable this young woman was, she was repeatedly denied because of her race, her appearance, her Japanese heritage

In the poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066: All Americans of Japanese Descent Must Report to Relocation Centers” , by Dwight Okita, a young Japanese-American girl gives us her point of view on being the race she is at the time. She expirienced recism, at it's finest, and endured it like a champ. In the short story "Merican's," by Sandra Cisneros, a young Mexican-American girl gives us her experience growing up in an American household with a Hispanic grandmother that detested Americans. Both works show that cultural heritage and physical appearances do not determine what it means to be American.

In a poem written about the calling of Japanese-Americans to internment camps during WWII, author Dwight Okita writes from the perspective of a young girl who sees herself as an American but is surrounded by those who cast her out. She does everything to prove that she belongs and justifies that by convincing the audience of her American qualities. “If it helps any, I will tell you I have always felt funny using chopsticks and my favorite food is hot dogs. My best friend is a white girl named Denise.” Okita’s use of this 14 year old girl adds power behind his words because the perspective of a child can humble a reader and bring them to a point of deeper understanding. In the poem, the girl is so young and understands nothing about what lies ahead, but she knows well enough to present herself as an American, as one who truly belongs. The pressure on immigrants to belong in the United states is imminent in this piece, and the fact that the young girl has picked up on this expectation is almost disturbing. The stigma around those who are different is also included in Okita’s

In the memoirs Farewell to Manzanar and Night, the authors both reveal events from their tragic past to the reader. However, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston takes a more reflective tone while Elie Wiesel tells his story with a solemn yet intimate tone. Within Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne narrates her story in a very calm and reflective way because she wanted to spread awareness that the Japanese internment did indeed happen. Although she tries to remain more of an observer and state facts of the time she was interned, at the end of the memoir, her tone does shift from a very factual standpoint to a more nostalgic and sentimental tone. In Night, Wiesel’s solemn and intimate tone helps him tell the reader of his difficult conflicts trying to survive religious persecution from the Nazis and his struggle to keep faith in God.

Jeanne goes into detail and states, “I was striving to be Miss America of 1947, he [her father] was wishing I’d be Miss Hiroshima of 1904” (Wakatsuki 164). This alone, shows how Jeanne was being disloyal to her Japanese side because she was siding herself with the “American” side, the side that had previously betrayed her. She wanted to represent the Americans, not the Japanese. At least, that is how her father saw it. Jeanne was disloyal to her Japanese side because she completely abandoned their traditions, in order to “Americanize” herself. She was not presenting herself like the typical Japanese woman; she wore short skirts and smiled a lot. Her father was not proud of the way she was turning out to be, so he brought those points up to her. When Jeanne was running to be queen at her school, her father was very angry. Jeanne describes how her father said that all the males nominated her because she wore short skirts and that she should start to be more modest. At this point, Jeanne’s father Ko must have realized that Jeanne was abandoning her Japanese roots because he brought up a point. He told her “You can be the queen if you start Odori lessons at the Buddhist church” (Wakatsuki 178). Eventually, Jeanne was no longer able to take lessons because she kept smiling during her performances and in Japan it was not socially accepted for people to smile while performing. Jeanne was being disloyal to her Japanese side because she was not doing anything to conserve it. If she truly cared and embraced her Japanese side, she would have at least put in the effort to not smile during her Odori lessons. Jeanne was confused and stuck between two cultures but she ended up being disloyal to one by completely abandoning it and not meeting any of its

'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the

She once wished to disappear, but her peers showed her the idea of the average American teenager. Jeanne fell into their world, changing herself and the way she dressed. Her conservative clothes disappeared, and were replaced by gaudy clothing that became a distraction from her heritage. Papa became outraged when he found out that Jeanne had been voted carnival princess at her new school. She barely won the vote, only after confronting teachers that stuffed the ballot box because they wanted Jeanne to lose. For her coronation night, Jeanne found a dress that was traditional and elegant. When she arrived that evening, her fellow contestants taunted Jeanne, making demeaning comments about her dress. One girl in particular was especially mean, ““The high neck,” she explained, studying my dress. “You look so… sedate. Just perfect for a queen.” As the other girls arrived, she made sure they all agreed with this. “Don’t you wish you’d thought of it,” she would say. And then to me, during a silence she felt obliged to fill, “I just love Chinese food.”” (Manzanar 180). The way that Lois Carson spoke to her reeked with sarcasm and made Jeanne feel like she didn’t belong with the other

Next, something must be said about the fact that most Japanese-Americans lived in separate neighborhoods than other Americans. As stated in the text of Farewell to Manzanar, “... She felt safer there than isolated racially in Ocean Park” (10-11). “There” is refering to Terminal Island, which is an island that was, during that time, mainly inhabited by Japanese-Americans. Jeanne’s mother moved the whole family over to Terminal Island from Ocean Park, after Jeanne’s father was taken by the FBI. While living in Ocean Park, they were the only Japanese-American family there. All of these things show that the Japanese-Americans separated themselves from other Americans, and vice-versus. Due to a predetermined opinion of both sides, these two races or parties rather, separated themselves from each other. Finally, prejudice still played a role in the aftermath of the Japanese-American Relocation. Even as Japanese-Americans were making there way back from the internment camps, they were still treated as outcasts, and were not given the same rights or opportunities as their fellow Americans. They were forced to accept the blame for others hurting them and treating them wrongly, and put that burden on themselves, even though it was not their fault. According to pages 159 and 160 in Farewell to Manzanar, “Choosing friends, for instance, often depended upon whether or not I could be invited to their homes, whether their parents

The play version of The Diary of Anne Frank tells the story of a young girl who goes into hiding during the Holocaust. In this play, Anne writes in her diary the details of what it’s like to go into hiding. In 1942, it was not only Anne who was struggling to survive, there was a boy, Elie Weisel, who was not in hiding, he was in a concentration camp. In this book that he wrote called Night, he talks about the details and struggles of being in the concentration camps. Although the play and Night have different settings, both works focus on the same conflicts and themes.

Houston uncover the racism that American white Americans accord the Japanese families and all Japanese race and ancestry.A race that’s exotic and dissimilar Jeanne and her japanese family went through the difficult times of racism and critical discrimination,just for being japanese americans.For looking and having japanese ancestry.Jeanne and her family were faced with a big challenge when the emperor of Japan gave a message bombing Pearl Harbor and Americans misread the message and conducted all japanese and consider them a threat.They were raised with Americans traditions,in American cities and celebrated American holidays. But they were consider otherwise and discriminated for looking spectacular different than most average white families. “He had become a man without a country.He was suddendly a man without rights who looked exactly like the emimie”(pg8) Jeanne father and family was conflicted for being a Japanses family and they became the emimie for being different.They had no civil rigths and were treated like criminals and lived like prisinors

It tells the events of the lifetime of a teenage Jewish girl, Anne, during her hiding from the Nazis for two years in the Secret Annex. This narrative tells the most significant feelings emotions doubts, fears and hopes of Anne during the two years of hiding and the thoughts that worries her like isolation, identity, family, love youth

Anne Frank’s diary is one of the most famous examples of how the Jews were treated during Hitler reign of terror and dictatorship. Plus on top of the Germans it did not make anything better with everyone teasing her and being mean and rude to her. The worst part is her mother to her did not even seem like a mother because of how mean she was verbally or in Anne’s mind anyway. It is also weird how she actually got along better with her father. In fact it seemed as if Anne and her mother played favorites. I am making this essay to show how she also had to struggle with her own parents and not only in camp. So with that being said I will show you how her different relationships with her parents improve or decrease while time goes by.

Jeanne and Jin both had difficulties finding their true identity. They both spent many years finding out who they really were, and yet couldn't find out for themselves, but with other people's help. Through Jeanne's life, she wished to be invisible because of all the hate and discrimination. She was scared to be herself because she was worried that she would have no friends, no one would like her, and that she wouldn't fit in. At a time in high school, during the carnival (again), she would a very showy dress that definitely grabbed the guys votes. When she went home to tell the good news, her father told her she cannot continue. She ignored him and went shopping with her mother to find a gown for the final round. She instead chose a more traditional