FAREWELL TO MANZANAR

Chapters 1 –3 Study Guide Questions

  1. When you consider the introductory material as a whole, what is your reaction to the decision to relocate Japanese Americans?
  1. What has Papa done to warrant being shipped off to prison?
  1. If you had been a member of the Wakatsuki family, would skikata ga nai have been your motto?
  1. What does Mama’s breaking of the porcelain help you to understand about Jeannie’s family?
  1. Why are the “dessert” of apricots on rice and the dust in Block 16 important details?

CHAPTERS 4 – 6

  1. In Chapter 4 we learn several important details about Japanese women? What are these details and what events help describe them?
  1. How is the family make-up affected in the camp? How are relationships within the family changed at Manzanar?
  1. Why does Jeannie feel drawn toward the Maryknoll nuns? How does she change from being around them and their teachings?
  1. List at least 10 facts we find out about Papa’s background in Chapter 6?

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CHAPTERS 12 – 14 STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS

CHAPTER 12:

  1. Where does the family move in the Spring of 1943? What is nice about that location?
  1. Name three hobbies Papa takes up while in Manzanar?
  1. What did people who drove past the main gate of the camp see? Why?
  1. List five things the camp had that were “American”?
  1. Explain what each sibling was doing while in the camp.
  1. Woody:
  2. Kiyo:
  3. Ray:
  4. Lillian:
  5. Bill:
  1. What was the name of the yearbook and describe four things it included.

CHAPTER 13:

  1. Describe Jeannie’s fourth grade teacher.
  1. What were the people allowed to do outside the camp?
  1. What activity does Jeannie participate in that was “thoroughly, unmistakably, American”?
  1. What children were considered to be beneath everyone else?
  1. What does Papa refuse to allow Jeannie to do?

CHAPTER 14:

  1. What are Papa and Mama worried about?
  1. What news does Mama bring?

3. Why does Jeannie feel separate from her parents?

Chapters 15 – 20
Chapter 15
  1. Who leaves the camp from Jeanne’s family?
  1. Where does Woody go and why does he want to go?
Chapter 16
  1. What did the first court case challenge?
  1. the second court case?
  1. the third court case?
4.What did the Western Defense Command announce in 1942?
  1. How does this announcement make the family feel?
  1. What reports do the people in Manzanar hear about people who try to reclaim their homes and land?
  1. What does Jeanne ask for on her piece of paper and in her nine days of prayer?
  1. Where does most of the family decide to resettle?
Chapter 17
  1. What does Papa decide to do about leaving the camp?
  1. What do Papa and Mama argue about?
  1. What happens on August 6th?
Chapter 18
  1. Who is Toyo?
  1. Whose gravestone does Woody see?
  1. Why does Woody not feel doubt about his father anymore?
Chapter 19
  1. What does Papa decide to buy?
  1. What is the first problem the family faces?
  1. What was Mama’s first concern? What does she do to solve it?
Chapter 20
  1. What is the girl at school surprised by about Jeanne?
  1. What can’t Jeanne join and why?
  1. What activity is she allowed to participate in?
  1. Why does Jeanne lose respect for her father?

5. What does Papa do that deeply embarrasses Jeanne?

FAREWELL TO MANZANAR

STUDY GUIDE FOR TEST

Know the following information for the test. The test will be short answer and essay and you will take it on the computer.

  1. Why Mr. Wakatsuki never contacts his relatives after leaving Japan.
  1. Why do the older brothers want to go to the internment camp?
  1. What is Manzanar like when the Wakatsuki’s first arrive?
  1. How does the family life and interaction change at Manzanar?
  1. How does Papa act in Manzanar and why do you think he becomes this way?
  1. What are some surprising objects and events that occur in Manzanar that make it “all-American?”
  1. Why don’t the internees want to leave Manzanar at the end of the war?
  1. What do the internees face on the outside world after they leave Manzanar?
  1. How does Jeanne try to fit in after she leaves Manzanar?
  1. Why does Jeanne go back to Manzanar?
  1. What do the years at Manzanar take away from Jeanne? Know at least three things.
  1. In what ways does this book help readers understand causes and effects of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II?
  1. People can respond to injustice and loss in many ways. What ways do the different members of the Wakatsuki family respond their internment?
  1. Jeanne Wakatsuki observes, “Papa’s life ended at Manzanar . . . and my own life really began there.” What does she mean by this statement?