Farewell to Manzanar - by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & James D Houston (Paperback)

About the Book

Originally published in 1973, this is a new paperback edition of the classic memoir of a young Japanese American internee at Manzanar during World War Two.

Book Synopsis

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls her childhood at a Japanese incarceration camp in this engrossing memoir that has become a staple of curriculum in schools and on campuses across the country. This special 50th-anniversary edition features a new cover, a foreword by New York Times bestselling and acclaimed author Traci Chee, and photographs of life at the camp by Toyo Miyatake.

During World War II the incarceration camp called Manzanar was hastily created in the high mountain desert country of California, east of the Sierras. Its purpose? To house thousands of Japanese Americans.

In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston recalls life at Manzanar through the eyes of the child she was and the experiences of her family. She relays the mundane and remarkable details of daily life during an extraordinary period of American history: The wartime imprisonment of civilians, most native-born Americans, in their own country, without trial, and by their fellow Americans.

She tells of her fear, confusion, and bewilderment as well as the dignity and resourcefulness of people in oppressive and demeaning circumstances. Jeanne delivers a powerful first-person account that reveals her search for the meaning of Manzanar.

Review Quotes

"A poignant memoir from a Japanese American. . . . Told without bitterness, her story reflects the triumph of the human spirit during an extraordinary episode in American history." -- Library Journal

"[Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston] describes vividly the life in the camp and the humiliations suffered by the detainees... A sober and moving personal account." -- Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston was born in California in 1934. She attended San Jose State University, where she met her husband, James D. Houston. For their teleplay for the NBC drama based on Farewell to Manzanar, they received the prestigious Humanitas Prize.

James D. Houston (1933-2009) was the author of several books including The Last Paradise, which received a 1999 American Book Award for fiction.