eu C1 BTU CNEL ies) ia ol cola) 0 i Elayeclelle and James D. Houston BACKGROUND During World War Il, the United included Japan. Afraid of Japanese sympathizers, and driven by racial prejudices, the feceral government ordered about 120,000 Japanese ‘Americans to leave their homes and lve in facilities known as internment, ‘camps. As this excerpt opens, Jeanne Wakatsuki’ father arrives at Manzanar, one such internment camp, after his detention on false charges of having aided the enemy. tates fought the Axis powers, which. SCAN FOR (@ 2 pow votre | Inu ith Papa back our cubicle was filled to overflowing. Woody brought in another army bunk and tick mattress, up next, to Mama’s. But that was not what crowded the room. It was Papa himself, his dark, bitter, brooding presence. Once moved in, it seemed he didn’t go outside for months. He sat in there, or paced, alone a great deal of the time, and Mama had to bring his meals from the mess hall 2 Hemade her bring him extra portions of rice, or cans of the syrupy fruit they served. He would save this up and concoct brews in a homemade still he kept behind the door, brews that smelled so bad. from Farewell to Manzanar 705Mark base words or indicate another strategy you sed that helped you determine meaning, collaborator (uh LAB uh ray tue). 706 UNIT 5 + FACING OUR FEARS ‘Mama was ashamed to let in any visitors. Day after day he would sip his rice wine or his apricot brandy, sip till he was blind drunk and passed out. In the morning he would wake up groaning like the demon ina kabuki' drama; he would vomit and then start sipping again. He terrified all of us, lurching around the tiny room, cursing in Japanese and swinging his bottles wildly. No one could pacify him. Mama got nothing but threats and abuse for her attempts to comfort him. Tturned eight that fall. T remember telling myself that he never went out and never associated with others because he thought he was better than they were and was angry at being forced to live so close to them for the first time in his life. I told myself they whispered about him because he brewed his own foul-smelling wine in our barracks. All of this was partly true. But there were deeper, uglier reasons for his isolation. I first sensed it one night when Mama and I went to the latrine together. By this time the stalls were partitioned. Two Terminal Island? women about Mama's age were leaving just as we walked in. They lingered by the doorway, and from inside my stall I could hear them whispering about Papa, deliberately, just loud enough for us to hear. They kept using the word “inu.” I knew it meant “dog,” and I thought at the time they were backbiting him because he nover socialized Spoken Japanese is full of disrespectful insult words that can be much more cutting than mere vulgarity. They have to do with bad manners, or worse, breaches of faith and loyalty. Years later I earned that iu also meant collaborator or informer. Members of the Japanese American Citizens League were being called inu for having helped the army arrange a peaceful and orderly evacuation. Men who cooperated with camp authorities in any way could be labeled inu, as well as those genuine informers inside the camp who relayed information to the War Department and to the FBI For the women in the late-night latrine Papa was an inu because he had been released from Fort Lincoln earlier than most of the Issei* ‘men, many of whom had to remain up there separated from their families throughout the war. After investigating his record, the Justice Department found no reason to detain him any longer. But the rumor ‘was that, as an interpreter, he had access to information from fellow Isseis that he later used to buy his release. ‘This whispered charge, added to the shame of everything that had happened to him, was simply more than he could bear. He did not yet have the strength to resist it. He exiled himself, like a leper,‘ and he drank. bukl huh 800 kee) 9 siy2ed form af classical Japanese theater 2, Tetminal Island Japanese American community in Ls Angeles tht was entirely destroyed after the inhabitants were interned 3, Issel (Et say) first-generation Japanese Americans, who have emigrate from Japan. 4, like a leper Historia, incivcuals wth the dseat leprsy wee coated from society, ut af fear of contagion,Yes Yes No No 27. Are you willing to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered? ve) (no) 28, Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States ‘of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization? Yes) ho) —from the War Relocation Authority Application for Leave Clearance, 1943 Later in December the administration gave each family a Christmas tree hauled in from the Sierras. A new director had been appointed and this was his gesture of apology for all the difficulties that had led up to the riot, a promise of better treatment and better times to come. Itwas an honest gesture, but it wasn’t much of a Christmas that year. The presents were makeshift, the wind was roaring, Papa was drunk. Better times were a long way off, and the difficulties, it seemed, had just begun. Early in February the government's Loyalty Oath appeared. Everyone seventeen and over was required to fill it out. This soon became the most divisive issue of all. It cut deeper than the riot, because no one could avoid it. Not even Papa. After five months of self-imposed isolation, this debate was what finally forced him out of the barracks and into circulation again. At the time, I was too young to understand the problem. I only knew there was no peace in our cubicle for weeks. Block organizers ‘Mork ase words or peice another stategy you used that would come to talk to Papa and my brothers. They would huddle helped you determine meaning over the table awhile, muttering like conspirators, sipping tea or one conspirators (ann SPR un of his concoctions. Their voices gradually would rise to shouts and tune) threats. Mama would try to calm the men down. Papa would tell enw her to shut up, then Granny would interrupt and order him to quit disgracing Mama all the time. Once he just shoved Granny across the room, up against the far wall and back into her chair, and where she sat sniffling while the arguments went on. If the organizers weren't there, Papa would argue with Woody. Or rather, Woody would listen to Papa lecture him on true loyalty, pacing from bunk to bunk, waving his cane. “Listen to me, Woodrow. When a soldier goes into war he must go believing he is never coming back. This is why the Japanese are such courageous warriors. They are prepared to die. They expect nothing else. But to do that, you must believe in what you're fighting for. If you do not believe, you will not be willing to die. If you are not willing to die, you won’ fight well. And if you don’t fight well you will from Farewell to Manzanar 707