Jeanne Wakatsuki

Jeanne Wakatsuki is the narrator and main character of Farewell to Manzanar. As a seven-year-old girl, and throughout her life, she cannot understand why her family is different and held responsible for Pearl Harbor. Because of the concern that Japanese were at risk of spying for the Japanese, they are all evacuated to internment camps inland. The large Wakatsuki family is sent to Manzanar, a camp built in the high Sierras of California.

Jeanne is intelligent, and has spent most of her time away from other Asian people. When her family is forced to move to Terminal Island after her Papa is arrested, she is terrorized by the Japanese speaking children, who hate her for the fact that she is different. She and her brother are threatened daily after school on their way home. They never are attacked, but they are afraid of it every day.

The...