Teaching “Farewell to Manzanar”

Jeanne Wakatsuki was seven years old in 1942 when the United States government authorized the forced relocation of all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to internment camps. Teaching “Farewell to Manzanar” interweaves a literary analysis of Jeanne’s memoir with an exploration of the relevant historical context surrounding her experience. This guide provides engaging activities, teaching strategies, and recommended media to structure your students’ reading of the memoir. Throughout their study, students will return the central questions: How do our confrontations with justice and injustice help to shape our identity? How do those confrontations influence the things we say and do?