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 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.
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).
Living conditions in the camp grew even more strained after Papa's return (Houston 2001; Sparknotes 2005). He began to drink heavily, and on one occasion threatened Mama with his cane, until their son Kiyo intervened by striking Papa to protect her. This violence and the defiance it represented signaled the fracturing of the family. Other bonds began to shatter as well, illustrated by the December Riot, which began with a young cook attempting to organize a workers' union and a leader in the Japanese-American Citizens League who was associated with the camp administration. Both were killed during the unrest. Jeanne also recounts a frightening encounter she, her brother-in-law Kaz, and their companions had with inexperienced military personnel who mistook them for camp escapees.
That Christmas, internee families were offered a tree and several options for improved treatment: being drafted into the infantry, returning to Japan, or relocating away from the West Coast (Houston 2001). The relocation option required a sponsor, a job, and a loyalty oath. Papa and Woody came into conflict, with Papa declaring loyalty to Japan and Woody expressing willingness to fight for America. At a family meeting, heads of households accused Papa of being a collaborator, a confrontation that broke his spirit further.
The U.S. government issued a Loyalty Oath to distinguish loyal Japanese Americans from those deemed potential enemies. Those who answered "no" to the loyalty questions risked deportation. Both Papa and Woody answered "yes," but when a man in the meeting called Papa an inu — a traitor — Papa attacked him. Meanwhile, Jeanne continued to drift further from her father; when she needed counsel, she turned to Mama or Woody instead.
By 1944, only the aged and the very young remained in Manzanar. Woody had been drafted into the famous all-Nisei 442nd Combat Regiment despite Papa's objections. That December, the Supreme Court ruled that the internment policy of 1942 was illegal and that all camps would close within a year (Wikipedia 2005). The ruling brought little excitement to the Wakatsukis, who had no home to return to and felt apprehensive about living on the West Coast. Most of Jeanne's siblings chose to relocate to the East Coast, hoping they would someday reunite — especially after the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and Japan's surrender brought the war to a close in August 1945.
"Returning to civilian life and confronting the past"
With a family of her own, Jeanne revisited the much-changed Manzanar site in April 1972 to confront a reality she had long evaded, having nearly convinced herself she had only imagined her imprisonment there. Walking through the ruins, memories returned. She came to terms with the truth that her life had begun at the very site where her father's had ended — and with his stubborn efforts to uphold and preserve Japanese values in himself and his family despite every upheaval (Houston 2001; Sparknotes 2005).
Scholars developed the Family Systems Theory from the General Systems Theory, applying it to families and other social systems (Morgaine 2001). A system is a bounded set of interrelated elements that exhibit coherent behavior as a shared trait (Constantine 1986, as cited in Morgaine; Comella 2001), or a collection of objects related to one another through regular interaction or interdependence (Webster, as cited in Morgaine). Families are considered systems because they are composed of interrelated members, exhibit coherent behaviors, engage in regular interactions, and are interdependent. These systems have interrelated elements and structures; interact in patterns; maintain boundaries that can be situated on a continuum from open to closed; function according to the Composition Law; use messages and rules to shape members; and contain subsystems (Morgaine).
A family is a system and its elements are its members (Morgaine 2001; Comella 2001). Each member has distinct characteristics, and the relationships between members function interdependently. These interrelationships form the family's structure, including membership boundaries — the dividing line between those within and those outside the system. Interactions within the family occur in predictable, repetitive patterns that help maintain equilibrium and guide members in their expected roles. An open boundary allows outside influences into the family, while a closed boundary isolates members from the environment. No system or family can be entirely open or entirely closed (Morgaine).
The system functions according to the Composition Law, which states that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (Morgaine 2001; Comella 2001). Every system is an organic whole, with holistic themes and images running through it. Unique behaviors can be attributed to the family as a whole without being exhibited by any individual member alone. There are also prescribed, repetitive, but unwritten messages and rules — called "relationship agreements" — that limit or dictate members' behaviors over time. These messages and rules are powerful, controlling, self-perpetuating, and induce guilt when violated. Examples of such messages include "be responsible" and "be perfect." Additionally, every family system contains subsystems: coalitions or alliances, each with its own rules, boundaries, and unique characteristics, whose memberships can change over time (Morgaine).
"Theory mapped onto the family's internment experience"
"Cultural identity, assimilation, and Jeanne's resolution"
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