"Farewell to Manzanar" is a true story of Japanese American experience during and after the World War II internment. In 1942 the author, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, was seven-year-old, and her family was moved to live at Manzanar internment camp, where 10,000 Japanese Americans were said to be moved to.
I asked Allen which literature he recommended to read to learn about Japanese Americans, and this book was one of the books he listed. I found this book in a teens section in Barnes and Noble. So far, I am reading this book smoothly, but it might be interesting to learn about the authors and World War II as a background of this story before you start reading.
ASIA
According to Brenda Hoffman, the Asian population of the United States today conitnues to rapidly increase, and they constitute about 2.9% of the total American population. Of that percentage, Chinese is the largest with a largest percentage being foreign born. The second largest group is Filipino which constitute 19%. Japanese make up 12% with most of them being native born. Indian and Korean each are at 11% and Vietnamese make up 8% of the population.
I feel it is very important to study about the history of Asian immigration to the United States when we study the Asian American Literature. The Chinese began immigrating to the United States around the time of the gold rush. They were a source of cheaplabor for farms, and they worked on the transcontinental railroad.
1. where is "manzanar"? what is the significance of manzanar historically?
2. which president declared the war against japan? which president decided to drop atomic bombs in japan?
3. why do you think it is important to learn about asian-american literature?
to answer above questions, please feel free to click any links that i recommend. when you are done with answering all questions, please learn more and more about japanese-americans and their literatures.
