Human Behavior and the Social Environment

Farewell to Manzanar

The intact Wakatsuki family consisted of Papa George Ko, Mama Riku Sugai, Bill the eldest, Eleanor, Woodrow or Woody and Jeanne, the youngest, who co-authored "Farewell to Manzanar (2001) (Sparknotes 2005)" with her would-be husband, James. Jeanne was born on September 26, 1934 in Inglewood, California. She spent early childhood with her Japanese family in Ocean Park where her father worked as a fisherman, until things began to change. This is the background of the autobiographic novel written by Jeanne and her husband, as she interpreted the events, the environment and the characters. Being born in the U.S., Jeanne has identified more with American culture and is the most independent of the Watsukis children.

On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise night-time bombing of the U.S. naval base in Pearl Harbor in the island of Oahu in Hawaii. Its 360 airplanes destroyed 18 U.S. ships and 170 planes and 3,700 casualties. The surprise attack signaled the start of World War II. In the autobiography, Papa burns his Japanese flag and Japanese identity documents but gets arrested for questioning by the FBI and Mama and the children move to the Japanese ghetto on Terminal Island and later to Boyle Heights in Los Angeles with other Japanese families, hoping to keep ethnic ties with them (Houston 2001). Out of fear that Americans of Japanese ancestry would assist the attackers, then U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942 to authorize the military to transfer thousands of Japanese-Americans into relocation of internment camps as potential enemies of the government (Houston). The U.S. War Relocation Authority built these camps in March 1942 for them in California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Arkansas. The best-known camp was the Manzanar Relocation Center near Lone Pine, California, which operated from March 1942 to November 1945 where more than 11,000 were kept, the Watsukis among them.

Manzanar is a barren, unfinished setting with tents and rows of barracks, with holes through which wind and dust come through (Houston 2001, Sparknotes 2005). The families are cramped in the camp and made to share badly prepared food, broken latrines, poor privacy, insufficient warm clothing for the winter and illness. Mama gets most affected by the lack of privacy in the use of the toilet. Jeanne describes how children and adults eat on separate tables, some members of the family assigned to another mess hall. Mama gets a job as a dietitian and Woody as carpenter while Jeanne moves around more independently. The year following his arrest, Papa returns as a dismal, wilted and defeated person who dismays his family, except the liberated Jeanne. At this point of the autobiography, Jeanne recalls being told that he was the oldest son of a samurai family and that at 17, he decided to leave Japan, then to work as a valet, cook, chauffeur, mechanic, enroll in law school and, later, marry. When she was born, Papa was into fishing and paying a percentage of his catch to buy a boat from a cannery when Pearl Harbor was bombed (Houston).

Living conditions in the camp are more cramped and worse when Papa returns (Houston 2001, Sparknotes 2005). He begins to drink and, in one occasion, threatens to hit Mama with his cane, during which a son, Kiyo, stops him. The violence and the defiance signal the splintering of the family. Other ties begin to shatter too, as illustrated by the December Riot that began with a young cook who was trying to organize a workers' union and a leader in the Japanese-American Citizens League who was associated with the camp administration. Both are killed during the Riot. Jeanne also relates her, her brother-in-law Kaz's and their companions' frightening encounter with inexperienced military men who mistake them as camp escapees.

That Christmas, internee families in the camp are given a tree and options for better treatment in the form of getting drafted into the infantry, return to Japan, or relocation away from the West Coast (Houston 2001). The last option required a sponsor, a job and a loyalty oath. Papa and Woody come into contention, with Papa standing loyal to native country and Woody expressing willingness to fight for America. In a meeting, the heads of households also accuse Papa of being a collaborator and a fight ensues and breaks his spirit even more.

Manzanar camp conditions ease somewhat when many families take relocation options (Houston 2001). The Wakatsukis transfer to a barracks near fruit trees, which they pick and store. Soon, the camp resembles a small town with its own school, churches, dances and even a softball team. Kiyo and Jeanne also attend high school and elementary school but all within the fence built around the camp. In the meantime, she drifts more and more from Papa. When she needs advice, she consults Mama or Woody, instead. By 1944, only the aged and the very young have remained in Manzanar. Woody has been drafted into the infantry. That December, the Supreme Court comes out with a ruling that challenges internment against the will of the local citizen and that it will close all camps within a year. The ruling does not excite the Wakatsukis who, by then, have no home to return to and are apprehensive about living in the West Coast. Most of Jeanne's siblings choose the East Coast, but hoping they would someday meet again, especially that June when the Japanese cities, Nagasaki and Hiroshima, were bombed and the War over by August.

Jeanne (2001) also writes about Woody's visit to the house of Papa's sister, Toyo, at Ke-ke near Hiroshima where she treats him royally and warmly, indicative of the warmth, sentimentality and gracefulness of the native culture. This is in April 1946. At this time, Papa buys a car and the family loads it with foods, beddings and other items for a return to Long Beach. But they find no records of his fishing boats. Mama has to find work in the canneries to support the family.

Jeanne (2001) recounts being in the sixth grade and humiliated and guilty about her lost years in the Manzanar camp. She succeeds in school but sees that friendships beyond it will be limited. She keeps the reality of her camp life from others. The Wakatsukis move to San Jose when Jeanne reaches senior year. She is nominated and then wins as Carnival Queen in school, something that distresses Papa as a threat to Jeanne's Japanese heritage but makes Mama feel proud about her.

Jeanne (2001) becomes the first Wakatsuki to finish college and the first to marry a non-Japanese. She continues to repress bitter memories of internment until she revisits Manzanar with her family. In that return, she cannot find even landmarks of the camp. She has outgrown the shame and guilt of imprisonment but keeps aware that traces of Manzanar will always remains with her.

At Point A, the Wakatsukis are intact while living in Ocean Park with Papa as a fisherman. They are among the thriving Japanese-American migrant-families of the place and period and Jeanne is a California-born citizen. When Pearl Harbor is bombed and Papa is arrested, Mama takes the children to live with other Japanese families, first in Terminal Island, then in Boyle Heights. Executive Order 9066 authorized the military to take them to relocation camps for internment. The family is among those brought to the Manzanar Relocation Center where living conditions are substandard and undignified. Family members are forced to different places for meals and solid ties are subjected to pressure (Wikipedia 2005). Papa is arrested and imprisoned at an interrogation center in Fort Lincoln in North Dakota and Woody takes over Papa's position as family protector. The separation has a shattering impact on the sturdiness of the Wakatsuki's Japanese culture. Papa left his samurai or warrior family in Japan to protest the declining status of the samurai. All his life, Jeanne writes, he has conducted himself with that style and dignity. The interrogators' accusation of disloyalty and spying at the time of his lengthy detention insults him vehemently and erodes the very vitality of that dignity.

Point B. begins with Papa's return to his family and the Manzanar camp but as a different man altogether -- gaunt, wilted and defeated by crushing interrogations. He drinks heavily and turns violent, exerting greater pressure on the original family strength. His own son, Kiyo, punches his father on the face to protect his mother, in the process straining family bonds even more. This frustration spills over to, or is shared by, the other families and people in the Manzanar camp during the December riot. Three men are arrested for beating up the leader of the Japanese-American Citizens League who is helping the U.S. government and two are shot dead by the military police that respond to the unrest. That same night, Jeanne, her brother-in-law Kaz and fellow workers are accused of sabotage by a patrol group. The U.S. government issues a Loyalty Oath to detect loyal Japanese from disloyal or potential enemies. Those who answer no to loyalty questions will be deported. Both Papa and Woody answer yes to the questions and in that instance, Papa attacks a man who calls him an inu or traitor.

Pressures and tensions are somewhat relieved when the Wakatsukis transfer to a better barracks near a fruit orchard and manage to survive through gardening (Houston 2001, Sparknotes 2005). The camp as backdrop now resembles a typical and small American town but still fenced in from the outside world. Bill and Jeanne adjust to their new world, Bill forms a bank called "The Jive Bombers," while she takes on certain Japanese and American hobbies and religious interests. Jeanne tells how she has begun distancing from Papa, while he and Mama are drawn closer by the birth of a grandchild. Family ties continue to severe with the drafting of Woody to join the famous all-Nisei 442nd Combat Regiment, despite Papa's objection. Woody becomes aware of his father's racial pride only when he visits his father's aunt Toyo in Hiroshima. The typical gracefulness, sentimentality and warmth of the Japanese are ingrained in her and Woody gets to appreciate these traits in his family and race.

The U.S. Supreme Court presents the internees with a gift of freedom that Christmas after deciding that the internment policy of 1942 was illegal (Wikipedia 2005). But many of the internees are hesitant to leave, not having places to call home, but they are still driven away. Papa decides to go back to Long Beach on board a broken-down blue sedan, which he buys for the purpose. The Wakatsukis attempt to survive as a family in that old place they left at the start of the cruel War and settle in a housing project called Cabrillo Homes. There, Jeanne meets and makes friends with Radine, a white girl, who admires Jeanne's ability to speak English. The girls go to high school, where Jeanne discovers the advantages open only to whites like Radine (Houston 2001, Sparknotesw 2005). The realization drives Jeanne into an inner world and almost makes her drop out of school. But Papa makes another attempt at preserving his family by moving to San Jose and take on berry farming as an occupation. Jeanne is encouraged to make a similar attempt at school life. In that attempt, she is nominated as Carnival Queen and, despite the conspiracy of antagonistic teachers, wins with the help of a supporter, Leonard Rodriguez. Papa is displeased with Jeanne's indecent display of her sexuality before American boys and views it as a loss of Japanese dignity. Jeanne compromises by agreeing to wear a conservative dress for the coronation. When the audience whispers, Jeanne realizes that an exotic or conservative outfit does not represent what she really is. She knows she must contend with that reality.

With a family of her own, Jeanne revisits the much-changed Manzanar site in April 1972 to get in touch with that reality she has evaded to the point of believing that she only imagined living in the camp as a prisoner. In that very site, memories come back as she walks through the ruins. She comes to terms with the truth that her life started in this site where her father's ended and his stubborn attempts to uphold and preserve Japanese values in his family and in himself despite upheavals (Houston 2001, Sparknotes 2005).

Scholars evolved the Family Systems Theory from the General Systems Theory in applying it on families and other social systems (Morgaine 2001). A system is a bounded set of interrelated elements that exhibit behavior as a trait (Constantine 1986 as qtd in Morgaine, Comella 2001) or a collection of objects related to each other by some regular interaction or interdependence (Webster as qtd in Morgaine). Families are considered systems because they are composed of interrelated elements or objectives, exhibit coherent behaviors, have regular interactions and are independent on one another. These systems have interrelated elements and structure; interact in patterns; have boundaries and can be viewed on a continuum as open to closed; function by the Composition Law; utilize messages and rules to shape members; and have subsystems (Morgaine).

A family is a system and the elements are the members of that family (Morgaine 2001, Comella 2001). Each element or member has characteristics. There are relationships between the elements or members and these relationships function interdependently. These interrelationships form the structure, which includes membership in a system and the boundary or limit between the system and its environment. Interactions within the system or family occur in predictable patterns of interaction in repetitive cycles to help maintain family equilibrium and as clues to how they should function. Each family or system also has boundaries or ways of including and excluding elements or members so that the dividing line between those within and those without the system is clearly made. An open boundary allows outside or external influences into the family or system, while a closed boundary isolates members or elements from the environment. No system or family can be completely opened or closed (Morgaine).

The system or family functions according to the Composition Law, which states that the whole is more than the sum of its parts (Morgaine 2001, Comella 2001). Every system is an organic whole, with wholistic themes and images running through the system. Unique behaviors can be ascribed to a single system or family without individual members or elements exhibiting them. There are also prescribed, repetitive but unwritten messages and rules, which are called "relationship agreements" that limit or dictate behaviors to members over time. These messages and rules are powerful, controlling, perpetuating and induce guilt when violated. Examples of messages are "be responsible" and "be perfect." And the family or system has subsystems, coalitions or alliances. Each develops its own rules, boundaries and unique characteristics. Their memberships can change over time (Morgaine).

The Wakatsukis are a system, being a family. As a Japanese family, they observe predictable patterns of interaction that must remain repetitive in maintaining family or system equilibrium and in establishing the proper functioning of its members (Morgraine 2001, Comella 2001). Since the Wakatsukis were placed in the camp where they had to adjust to hard and undignified living conditions, these patterns ceased to be predictable, not only physically but also psychologically. For three years living as prisoners in the camp and treated as traitors or threats to national security, they had to compromise the typical Japanese qualities of decency, privacy, honesty and respect. They were unable to keep the boundaries between the family and the environment. Accusations of disloyalty and spying against Papa placed extreme pressure on his inner values, wherein an admission or denial would redound to the same splintering of his personal equilibrium. Woody's and Kiyo's violations of qualities typically Japanese also presented another insult to the integrity of their parents' racial beliefs and values, which were jeopardized by their residing in the U.S. (Morgaine, Comella).