Question

What aspects of americana do the japanese integrate into their lives at manzanar?

Answer 1

Lives of Japanese Americans were devastated by the Executive Order. With the forced relocation to camps at Manzanar, they were forced to rely on the government for their most basic needs. There's a sense of community in the midst of hardship.

Men play American football. Manzanar even had its own newspaper, a Sunday school and a choir. Authority of Japanese parents declined as their children spent more time with their friends in the camps.

Answer 2

The Wakatsuki family begins to break down because of how Manzanar forces them to live, but the final blow to the family is the realization that they can no longer depend on Papa’s solid character for strength. Wakatsuki traces the beginnings of her family’s disintegration to the mess hall lifestyle and the way in which it disrupted the cherished Wakatsuki mealtime ritual. When they stop eating together, the Wakatsukis stop connecting with each other, preferring to spend their daytime hours working or volunteering rather than cooped up together in the cramped barracks. This separation leaves Jeanne free to explore, but it also leaves her without a guide or mentor. She spends much of her time in camp floating from one activity to the next. Papa’s return from his arrest as a suspected spy accelerates the erosion of the Wakatsuki family structure. His experiences at Fort Lincoln and the accusation of disloyalty leave him a bitter and disillusioned man. He is no longer the source of strength he was before the war, and his return kills all hope that the family will rally around him as patriarch. That most of the older children eventually abandon Mama and Papa in California and relocate to New Jersey shows the deep divide that Manzanar creates in the once happy Wakatsuki family.