Farewell To Manzanar Chapter Summary

Fellow citizens and grieving relatives succumbed to sorrow and malice following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. During WWII, Germany’s ally, Japan, sought to neutralize the U.S. Pacific fleet drawing their involvement into the war, effecting foreign affairs and racial relationships in the country. Rumors of disloyalty and sabotage by Japanese Americans spread quickly, thus promoting racial prejudice and distrust in society. In result, Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the Executive Order of 9066 on February 19, 1942 authorizing an exclusion of Japanese Americans from the West Coast in the occurrence of the recent events. Many families were forced out of their homes, losing many of their possessions and livelihood. Japanese Americans became subject to profiling, questioned of their loyalty, as their treatment as prisoners …show more content…
Farewell to Manzanar by James D. Houston and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, and Citizen 13660 by Miné Okubo detail experiences following the loyalty oath. In the narratives, Okubo carries a monotone of expression, relying on her drawings to display emotion, however Houston effectively captures the psychological issues that the questionnaire presented, referencing dialogue and impulses to describe the substantial damage on Japanese-American pride. The underlining context of Japanese ancestry, citizenship, and allegiance are challenged and the effects on the internees are expressed.

Houston and Okubo initially present the loyalty oath in different ways. In both memoirs, the loyalty questions are referenced, but Houston states them in their entirety. The first question concerns service to the US military and the second forswearing allegiance to Japan, to then pledge allegiance to the US. In Citizen 13660, only the second question is addressed to describe their dilemma. (p.175) Unlike Okubo, Houston begins the chapter with the excerpt from the questionnaire to later explain the