to sanitation and basic decency. The family was also separated, the patriarchal Mr. Wakatski being forced to a different camp after being arrested.

Those living in the camp were forced to share a small supply of badly prepared food and live in horribly cramped living quarters that afforded little privacy. There were not enough warm clothes to go around, and drafts and dust came through holes in the living area. In particular, Jeanne's mother is bothered horribly by the toilets that have no walls around them. These indignities severely wound the pride of the family, and soon they stop having meals together.

The internment camp was hurriedly put up, and minimal efforts were directed towards health and sanitation. People suffered from diarrhea and other sanitation related diseases. Jeanne suffered from exposure to the filthy conditions and the situation affected the family.

Group living in the internment camp forced the people, including the Wakatsuki family, to share all the available amenities. In addition, the rooms were small, and the situation affected individual privacy. For instance, the young couples in the Wakatsuki family were forced to share the small space with their parents.

The internment camp also affected the family psychologically. Years after the camps were closed, the Japanese people carried the shame associated with living in the camps, and Jeanne was among those affected by the experience.

The Wakatsuki family was also split by the relocation. Mr. Wakatsuki was arrested and separated from his family. His son was forced to take charge of the family when they settled in Manzanar.

This is a part of American History that is only in recent past being explored.  For so long, the narrative of America's entry into World War II was played up by the idea of Pearl Harbor that it clouded everything else.  At the same time, I think that the injustice of Pearl Harbor might have some competition with the injustices perpetrated on the Japanese American Community afterwards.  Examine the immediate impact of internment on those Japanese living in America:

Within hours after Japan’s bombing attack of the United States naval station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) began arresting community leaders, teachers at Japanese schools, and anyone who had business ties to Japan. Most of the two thousand men arrested were Issei (born in Japan, immigrants to the United States). Their status as resident aliens was changed to that of enemy aliens. The two-week period of arrests along the Pacific coast was also a time of search and seizure of Japanese American households. Homes, businesses, and personal property were lost.

It is a lengthy quote, but might go very far in illuminating the impact on the Japanese- American community.  Internment was with such force, such a coordinated effort, that individuals impacted could only grasp at trying to figure out why it was happening, what was happening, and what it would mean.  Relocation to camps in the middle of the desert, far removed from society and any rights that might go along with it, had to have been a transition of nightmare proportions.  In the end, this had a profound impact on the Japanese- American community, compelling them to distrust what the government was doing and White society, in general. The ironic element in all of this was that, for the most part, the Japanese- American community was one of the most passive communities of color in America.  They were hard working, followers of both the opportunity ideology and the American Dream, and simply sought to remain in the private realm.  No doubt that this cultural capital caused more confusion when they were the targets of governmental power and abuse.