Farewell to Manzanar: Family Systems Theory Analysis
This paper examines Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston's autobiographical novel Farewell to Manzanar through the framework of Family Systems Theory. It traces the Wakatsuki family's journey from their pre-war life in Ocean Park, California, through their internment at the Manzanar Relocation Center following Executive Order 9066, and into their difficult postwar reintegration. The paper applies core concepts from Family Systems Theory — including boundaries, patterns of interaction, subsystems, and the Composition Law — to analyze how internment disrupted the family's equilibrium, eroded cultural identity, and ultimately produced divergent outcomes for Papa and Jeanne, representing the broader tensions faced by deeply ethnic families navigating assimilation in American society.
- The Wakatsuki Family Before Internment: Family background, Pearl Harbor, and forced relocation
- Life at Manzanar: Disruption and Decline: Camp conditions and Papa's traumatic return
- Family Fracture and the Path to Release: Violence, loyalty oaths, and growing independence
- Postwar Reintegration and Identity: Returning to civilian life and confronting the past
- Family Systems Theory: Core Concepts: Boundaries, subsystems, and the Composition Law explained
- Applying Family Systems Theory to the Wakatsukis: Theory mapped onto the family's internment experience
- Culture, Environment, and the Lesson of Manzanar: Cultural identity, assimilation, and Jeanne's resolution
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper successfully bridges literary analysis and social science theory, using Family Systems Theory as a structured lens to interpret the memoir's events rather than simply summarizing the plot.
- It traces a clear arc — from family integrity at Point A, through the destabilizing pressures of internment at Point B, to postwar fragmentation and personal resolution — giving the analysis an organized narrative logic.
- Relevant quotations from the primary text are used strategically near the end to anchor theoretical claims in the characters' own voices.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the application of a social science theoretical framework (Family Systems Theory) to a literary primary source. Rather than treating the memoir as fiction to be interpreted thematically, the writer uses it as a case study in family dynamics — identifying concepts such as open and closed boundaries, subsystems, the Composition Law, and cultural messages — and maps these systematically onto the Wakatsuki family's experience. This dual-mode approach (literary + theoretical) is a hallmark of interdisciplinary academic writing.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a narrative summary of the memoir's major events, organized chronologically and divided by key turning points (pre-war, internment, postwar). It then pivots to a theoretical exposition of Family Systems Theory before returning to the memoir to apply those concepts. The paper concludes with a broader sociological observation about migrant families and cultural identity. This "describe, theorize, apply" structure is effective for analytical essays that combine primary source analysis with theoretical frameworks.
The Wakatsuki Family Before Internment
The Wakatsuki family consisted of Papa George Ko, Mama Riku Sugai, their eldest son Bill, Eleanor, Woodrow (Woody), and Jeanne — the youngest — who co-authored Farewell to Manzanar (2001) with her husband, James Houston. Jeanne was born on September 26, 1934, in Inglewood, California. She spent her early childhood with her Japanese family in Ocean Park, where her father worked as a fisherman, until circumstances began to change. Being born in the United States, Jeanne identified more strongly with American culture and was the most independent of the Wakatsuki children.
On December 7, 1941, Japan staged a surprise bombing of the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. The attack involved 360 aircraft and destroyed 18 U.S. ships, 170 planes, and resulted in approximately 3,700 casualties. The attack marked the beginning of U.S. involvement in World War II. In the autobiography, Papa burns his Japanese flag and identity documents but is subsequently arrested and questioned by the FBI. 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 maintain ethnic ties (Houston 2001).
Out of fear that Americans of Japanese ancestry might assist enemy forces, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942, authorizing the military to transfer thousands of Japanese Americans into relocation and internment camps as potential enemies of the government (Houston). The U.S. War Relocation Authority built these camps beginning in March 1942 in California, Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Arkansas. The best-known was the Manzanar Relocation Center near Lone Pine, California, which operated from March 1942 to November 1945 and held more than 11,000 people — the Wakatsukis among them.
Life at Manzanar: Disruption and Decline
Manzanar was a barren, unfinished setting with tents and rows of barracks, gaps through which wind and dust blew freely (Houston 2001; Sparknotes 2005). Families were cramped together and forced to share poorly prepared food, broken latrines, inadequate warm clothing for winter, and widespread illness. Mama was most affected by the lack of privacy in the use of communal toilets. Jeanne describes how children and adults ate at separate tables, and some family members were assigned to different mess halls altogether. Mama found work as a dietitian, and Woody worked as a carpenter, while Jeanne moved around with increasing independence.
Papa was arrested and imprisoned at an interrogation center in Fort Lincoln, North Dakota. Woody stepped into the role of family protector in his absence. The separation had a shattering impact on the cohesion of the Wakatsukis' Japanese cultural identity. Papa had left his samurai family in Japan to protest the declining status of the samurai class. Throughout his life, Jeanne writes, he conducted himself with the style and dignity of that heritage. The interrogators' accusations of disloyalty and spying during his lengthy detention deeply insulted him and eroded the vitality of that dignity.
In the year following his arrest, Papa returned to Manzanar as a gaunt, wilted, and defeated man — a transformation that dismayed his family, though Jeanne, now more independent, was less shaken. At this point in the autobiography, she recalls being told that Papa was the oldest son of a samurai family and that at seventeen he had decided to leave Japan, subsequently working as a valet, cook, chauffeur, and mechanic, enrolling in law school, and eventually marrying. When Jeanne was born, Papa had turned to fishing and was paying a percentage of his catch to purchase a boat from a cannery when Pearl Harbor was bombed (Houston).
Bibliography
Comella, Pamela A. (2001). A Brief Summary of Bowen Family Systems Theory. Bowen Theory. http://www.bowentheory.com/abriefsummaryofbowenfamilysystemstheorycomella.htm
Creek, Rock. (2003). Images of Manzanar. Sierra Nevada Webring.
Houston, Jeanne, and James Houston. (2001). Farewell to Manzanar. Hungry Minds, Inc.
Sparknotes, Inc. LLC. (2005). Farewell to Manzanar.
McCune, Richard. (2001). Bowen Theory on Three Sheets. Lorraine D'Aversa of Pentimente Strategies, Inc. http://www.bowentheory.com/btsheets.htm
Morgaine, C. (2001). Family Systems Theory.
Wikipedia. (2005). Manzanar. MediaWiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manzanar
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