military

Farewell to Manzanar was recently assigned to me for a college sociology class. It is about a family that is sent to live in a Japanese internment camp during the second world war. Prior to this assignment I had never heard of the book but I was aware of the existance of such camps, but I knew very little about them and was interested to learn more. The book is written at a high school level, is simple to understand and a very quick read in general. I finished in a little over 2 hours. Due to the level of reader it is targeted for some detail was disregarded which I feel was somewhat detrimental to the story. None-the-less, the inter-family relationships are illustrated very well, and the turmoil that the central character, Jeanne goes through is evident. However, I would have liked to learn more about the relationships between other camp members and more about the financial and emotional repurcussions after the camp was closed. With the anniversary of 9-11 looming there are some interesting parallels with current cultural relations, how we feel about immigrants and the ideas we hold about being "american". History is doomed to repeat itself if we allow it, if we educate ourselves about the mistakes in the past we can stop them from happening again. I think that people should be reading this book and I recommend this book especially to teachers who are assinging reading to children.

Now that we live in a country where terrorists crash into skyscrapers, we find ourselves on the brink of war. More than ever, it is of tantamount importance that we remember our nations' past errors. To ignore what our parents and grandparents have lived and learned will set the stage for repetition of persecution of the innocent. The Japanese-Americans on the west coast during WWII were snatched from their homes, jobs and lives. They were placed in internment camps and held for no other reason than the slant of their eyes. After years of living behind barbed wire and treated no better than animals, they were released and sent "home". What they found was their homes and property repossessed, businesses destroyed, and replacements at their jobs. For a proud and self-reliant people, it was the ultimate degradation. Farewell to Manzanar is an eloquent reminder that America is not immune to racial fear and hysteria. To avoid a perpetuation of hate and bias, we must educate our children. I read this book at the age of ten and have continued to re-read it for the last 20 years. Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston has educated generations with this detailed account of her family's ordeal. I wish this book was required reading in all public schools.

When I first read this book 2 decades ago, I read it to learn about a history that I hoped our government would atone for. In fact, later, the US government did make reparations, and I had hoped that that would be the end of that story.

But today post 9/11, the same issues have arisen. This time, it is not Japanese-Americans, but Americans of Middle-Eastern descent. Today, the US Supreme Court announced its decision in "Hamdi v. Rumsfeld" in which a US citizen of Middle-Eastern descent was being held prisoner indefinitely by the US government even though there has been no trial and Hamdi has no access to a lawyer. The Supreme Court wisely said that this was unacceptable. In many sections of the opinion, the Court kept referring to the lessons we learned from the Japanese-American internment experience that is described in this book.

When times are stressful and we feel like we are being attacked by the enemy, it is easy to conclude that anyone who looks like the enemy should be detained, even without any evidence that that person did anything wrong. I hope that all people who feel that racial profiling is appropriate (or that all Middle Eastern people are suspect) read this book. Maybe this book will change their minds.