Farewell to Manzanar: Chapter 17 Summary & Analysis

In June, the Manzanar schools close permanently. The high school’s last yearbook includes a photo of a hand breaking the barbed wire fence with pliers. Word goes around that everyone has to leave by December first; internees who don’t leave on their own will be resettled by the government in the town of their choice, shipped out on a weekly schedule.

Passively, Papa decides to wait until he’s scheduled to leave. He doesn’t even have a definite job to go back to, because a wartime law has made it illegal for Issei to have fishing licenses, and he’s sure that his boats have been stolen. At least in camp his family has enough to eat.

Throughout the scorching August, Papa sits in the shade and reads the newspapers aloud, telling the family about Japan’s final losses. When he reads about housing shortages on the West Coast, he becomes frustrated and abandons the newspaper. He and Mama begin arguing about what to do, and Papa becomes short-tempered again.

When Mama gets tired of arguing, she tells Jeanne to rub her back and release some of the tension. Since Jeanne isn’t strong enough to rub out the knots, Papa takes over, firmly digging his thumbs into Mama’s back. Papa says that Mama should see a doctor for her back, but she’s unable to because the hospital is so understaffed.

Papa reassures Mama, telling her that the block leaders have decided to send a petition to the administration demanding that internees be allowed to stay at camp until they figure out somewhere definite to go. However, it’s clear he’s unsure if the petition will work. When Mama asks Papa bleakly what they are going to do, he proposes one of his far-fetched ideas: getting a government loan and founding a “cooperative” in California to house displaced Japanese-Americans. He says that the government is obligated to help internees get a new start after all the trouble it’s cased them, but when Mama asks doubtfully if the government will actually do anything, he resumes massaging in silence.

When the atomic bombs fall on Hiroshima, the war is definitively over and the Wakatsukis realize they must return to the outside world. Just as Pearl Harbor ended the prewar period of Jeanne’s life, this “appalling climax” is the end of her time at Manzanar. Internees are happy to see the end of the war, but any celebrations are dampened by the atomic bombing—Papa is worried about his remaining family in Japan, especially since his own children are now scattered across the country.

While Papa reads the papers and looks at the mountains, other families leave the camp every day. When it’s finally time for the Wakatsukis to leave, there are only two thousand reluctant internees left inside Manzanar.