When I was a kid, I loved to read about the history of World War Two and I was aware of the internment of Americans of Japanese descent but I never thought much about what it must have been like. "Farewell To Manzanar" is an account of how the internment affected one Japanese-American family.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt signed executive order 9066 which eventually resulted in the internment of 110 thousand Americans of Japanese ancestry. Manzanar in Owens Valley, California was one of ten camps scattered throughout the west.
The Manzanar camp was hastily constructed and not always functional.Although according to the author, there was plenty of food, schooling for the children, and some medical care. Still, Manzanar was basically a prison camp for people whose only crime was being of Japanese descent.
The Manzanar camp was closed Nov. 21, 1945
In 1988, the US Senate voted to provide compensation for the victims of the internment.
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