Interviews

1. The only Japanese family in Ocean Park

2. Impact of Pearl Harbor on her family

3. Initial impact on life at camp

4. Mixed blood people at camp from a child's point of view

5. Embarrassed to talk about camp

6. The birth of a novel through a conversation with her nephew

7. Documenting family history for future generations

8. Getting the book published

9. Her father as a typical Issei

10. East First Street the hub of Japanese American community

11. California housing shortage after the war

12. Farewell to Manzanar not a bestseller, but is steady

13. Being involved in every aspect of the film

14. Controversy over the film

15. Trick in developing the film

16. Unexpected positive reviews and an Emmy nomination

17. Not a "camp story" but a human story

18. Racism doesn't end

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston

(b. 1934) Writer

Farewell to Manzanar not a bestseller, but is steady

I don’t think that the publishers thought for a minute it (Farewell to Manzanar) would ever be made into a film. It was kind of a conscious thing for them, or a conscious…we’re going to do this story. And I will tell you, I just never…you just never thought that it would be, you know, nothing like the other books that we’ve worked on or that I’ve done or Jim’s done that we thought would be, “Oh boy this might be a bestseller” or something.

But Farewell to Manzanar isn’t necessarily a bestseller, but it’s just steady and it even sells more now. You know, more people are reading it now because…I believe it’s because it’s accessible in that it speaks to a lot of people. You don’t have to be just Japanese, you know. It speaks to if you’re fat, if you were not pretty when you were young, you know. And it’s a father…I know that I’ve had kids call me up, write me letters about their fathers being alcoholics. So there are a lot of hooks there that people can hang their hat on in terms of their own empathy.

California concentration camps Farewell to Manzanar (film) (book) Manzanar concentration camp United States World War II camps

Date: December 27, 2005

Location: California, US

Interviewer: John Esaki

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, co-author of the acclaimed Farewell to Manzanar, was born in 1934 in Inglewood, California. The youngest of ten children, she spent her early childhood in Southern California until 1942 when she and her family were incarcerated at the World War II concentration camp at Manzanar, California.

In 1945, the family returned to Southern California where they lived until 1952 when they moved to San Jose, California. Houston was the first in her family to earn a college degree. She met James D. Houston while attending San Jose State University. They married in 1957 and have three children.

In 1971, a nephew who had been born at Manzanar asked Houston to tell him about what the camp had been like because his parents refused to talk about it. She broke down as she began to tell him, so she decided instead to write about the experience for him and their family. Together with her husband, Houston wrote Farewell to Manzanar. Published in 1972, the book is based on what her family went through before, during, and after the war. It has become a part of many school curricula to teach students about the Japanese American experience during WWII. It was made into a made-for-television movie in 1976 that won a Humanitas Prize and was nominated for an Emmy in the category of Outstanding Writing in a Drama.

Since Farewell to Manzanar, Houston has continued to write both with her husband and on her own. In 2003, her first novel, The Legend of Fire Horse Woman was published. She also provides lectures in both university and community settings. In 2006, Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston received the Award of Excellence for her contributions to society from the Japanese American National Museum. (November 25, 2006)