Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is an American writer. Her writings are mostly focused on the ethnic diversity of the United States. She is best known for her autobiographical novel Farewell to Manzanar which details her own experiences as a Japanese American in the World War II internment camps. Houston was born in Inglewood, California on September 26, 1934, and attended Long Beach Polytechnic High School. She was the youngest of four boys and six girls in the Wakatsuki family. She studied sociology and journalism. For the first seven years she experienced a normal childhood. She lived in... Southern California until 1942 when she and her family were evacuated. They were forced to leave their home and be taken to Manzanar. She and her family spent the next three years in the camp, attempting to live a "normal" life behind barbed wire, under the watch of armed guards in searchlight towers. Despite their efforts, obstacles managed to get in the way: her father's drinking habits and aggressive abuse, having no freedom, and very little space in the cubicles.
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