Chapters 1-6
Chapters 7-11
Chapters 12-15
Chapters 16-19
Chapters 20-22
100
What is the setting when the story opens?
The wharf in Long Beach, California, in 1941.
100
The interrogator asked Papa what he thought of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. What was Papa’s response?
Papa said he was sad for both countries; that the bombing and war were the things that happened when military men were in control.
100
The word manzanar is Spanish. What is the English translation of the word? Why was Manzanar so named?
Manzanar means “apple orchard.” The area where the Manzanar camp was located in the Owens Valley, had once been apple orchards. Around the 1920s the area turned to desert when the water flow was diverted to Los Angeles.
100
What comparison did Jeanne use to describe Papa now?
He was like a slave who had been freed after the Civil War. He didn’t know what to do next.
100
What did Jeanne do on her first day in class that amazed one of the other students?
Jeanne read out loud with no mistakes.
200
Why did Papa burn the flag from Hiroshima and papers after Pearl Harbor?
He was afraid of being arrested for being Japanese.
200
Why wouldn’t Papa or most of the other Japanese men talk about Fort Lincoln?
The men were charged with disloyalty to the American government. For a Japanese man, disloyalty was the greatest possible disgrace. They were also humiliated at their powerlessness.
200
What did the trees symbolize for Jeanne?
The family’s barracks was near an old pear orchard that still had some live fruit trees. The trees symbolized the “turning of our life in the camp, from the outrageous to the tolerable.” Papa pruned the trees and they picked the fruit.
200
What problem did the family face as a result of the court ruling?
They had nowhere to go. They were afraid to go back to the west coast because of the presence of hate groups. Violence against the Japanese Americans was going on all over the west coast.
200
What family “firsts” did Jeanne accomplish?
She was the first to finish college, and the first to marry out of her race.
300
What was Jeanne’s physical condition at the camp?
She was sick continually, with stomach cramps and diarrhea.
300
How does Jeanne describe the results of the Loyalty Oath?
She said the results would have been comical if they had not been so grotesque. An espionage agent would not admit to being disloyal, while the Japanese who were loyal to America were so outraged at being made to take the oath that they turned anti-American.
300
What would Jeanne have done if she had been told she was free?
She said she would go right back to the camp.
300
. What event finally caused the camps to be completely closed? When did this happen?
On August 6 the United States dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima, ending the war.
300
Describe Jeanne’s dream and what it meant to her.
In the dream Jeanne watches through a window a blond, blue-eyed high school girl is admired by others. She wants to cry because the girl is something she (Jeanne) can never be.
400
How does Jeanne as an adult see the cane that Papa brought back with him from Fort Lincoln?
She sees the cane as “a sad, homemade version of the samurai sword his grandfather carried in the land around Hiroshima.”
400
How did Papa answer the questions on the Loyalty Oath?
Papa answered YES YES to the questions.
400
What activities was papa doing?
Papa collected driftwood and carved furniture and other items from it. He made a rock garden from stones he gathered in the desert. He began painting watercolors, especially of the mountains.
400
What job did Mama take?
Mama took a job at a fish cannery.
400
How were Papa’s failures contrasted by Woody’s return?
Papa’s plans all failed. When Woody came back from Japan he had more self-confidence. Papa began to depend on Woody instead of being in charge himself.
500
What was Order 9066 and how did it affect the Japanese Americans?
Order 9066 authorized the War Department to define military areas in the western states and to exclude anyone who might be considered a threat to the war effort. The Japanese were talking about the possibility that they would be moved to some place inland.
500
Describe the events that took place in the reservoir shack.
Jeanne’s brother-in-law, Kaz, was the foreman of the reservoir maintenance detail. The men on this crew were the only ones allowed outside the camp the night the riot occurred. While the men were in the shack some MPs burst in. They held the crew under armed guard until they verified that the men were allowed out of the camp.
500
What was Papa’s reaction when Jeanne said she wanted to be baptized and confirmed Catholic?
Papa refused to give his permission and argued with the nun.
500
Why did Papa wait for the government to arrange his departure from the camp?
He had nowhere to go and no job. In 1943 a California law restricted Japanese Americans from getting a commercial fishing license. He felt safer in the camp. He thought the government should take care of his departure since it had brought him there in the first place.
500
Where did Jeanne go in April 1972? Who went with her? What did the place look like?
She and her husband and children went to the site of the Manzanar camp. The buildings were all gone. Only the two gatehouses remained.
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