Farewell to Manzanar Podcast Recordings Chapter 15-22

The Farewell to Manzanar podcast discusses the final chapters of the book. It explores the aftermath of the camp and how it affected the characters. Some family members leave voluntarily, while others are forced to leave. The court cases lead to the closure of Manzanar and other camps. The family realizes they have no other home, making it difficult to leave. They move to Los Angeles but still face discrimination. The protagonist reflects on her time in the camp and visits the now-destroyed Manzanar. The book is praised for its realism and thought-provoking nature. So this is the Farewell to Manzanara podcast. So today we're talking about a little summary and what I thought about the book Farewell to Manzanara, which is written by Jane Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. We'll be talking about chapters 15 throughout the end of the book, which I believe is chapter 22. And these chapters, they really talk about the aftermath of Manzanara and the effect it had throughout this, the years it was open. So chapter 15 talks about that some of the family is slowly leaving the camp. It's no longer, like, forced. So, for instance, Eleanor leaves and Woody is forced to do his service, which has a little argument with Jane's dad. Then chapter 16 talks about three court cases, which the two first are lost with by the Japanese. But the third one is won, and therefore Manzanara and all the other interminate camps are scheduled to close. Chapters that continue, the whole family really realizes that they don't really have any other home aside from Manzanara, which starts to make it a little difficult. They're wondering, what are we going to do when we leave? And they're kind of delaying their departure until really the camp closes. And before they move, they talk about this kind of flashback moment where Woody comes to see his Japanese family in Japan. And it's kind of about, like, what happens. And his dad is scared that he's going to think of him like a traitor since he served in the army. So after they do move, what happens is they move into Los Angeles in this, like, not really finished homes. But Jane really realizes that, like, even though the camp's over, there's still a little bit of, like, hate going on. And really, it's, she's always going to be Japanese and she's always going to be noticed for that. And in the last chapter of the book and the ones coming to it, she revisits Camp Manzanara and really, even though it's been completely destroyed and rebuilt as a city, they really kind of look at what happened. And she really observes and can tell where everything was and it really brings back memories to her. So I was pretty intrigued by this book. I found it fairly interesting. And these last few chapters, I really could understand, like, the feeling where it's like, where else are we going to go afterwards? Because they have been in that camp for almost five years now and it's probably very weird to leave it now. It's almost starting to feel like home. And now they actually have to start leaving it. So I really understand that and I find that really interesting, the way they act and the way they basically, in the end, get forced out of the camp. It's pretty interesting, like, the realization that Jane realizes that, like, she's always going to be looked on differently and really, like, how she realizes that she basically lived her whole life in that camp and that's really become home for her. It must be very shocking to be moving from a place which is almost a prison, but it's basically been your home for many years. And now she's actually leaving there and she's going back to the real world, a world after a war, and she actually realizes that inside that camp there are only Japanese people now that are really spreading out to the rest of the world. And I find that really interesting, the way she realizes that and acts through those difficult times. I really like the book. I found it interesting and I like the way it was written. It's by a real person and it's a real experience. And I found it really motivating and strong and it really made me think about, like, wow, it's really something that actually happened. It seems so unrealistic. So that's it for this podcast. Thank you for listening.