Farewell to Manzanar pages 40 to 50

Summery

Chapter 7

An unnamed interrogator questions Papa at Fort Lincoln, North Dakota. The interrogator asks if he has had contact with his uncle, who is a general in Japan, but Papa says he has not. He also says that he has never returned to Japan because he is a black sheep in his family. The interrogator asks for the names of Papa’s ten children, and Papa names only 9 all but Jeanne, saying there are too many to remember. The interrogator accuses him of supplying oil to a Japanese submarine off the coast of California, but Papa says only a foolish commander would voyage so far from his fleet. The interrogator shows him a photograph and asks what was in the two fifty-gallon drums seen on the deck of the Wakatsuki’s boat. Papa answers that it was fish chum to attract mackerel into the nets. The interrogator asks him what he thinks of the attacks on Pearl Harbor and the American military. Papa replies that he is sad for both countries but that he is sure the Americans will win because they are bigger and richer, and Japan’s leaders are stupid. He says he weeps every night for his country. The interrogator asks if he still feels loyalty to the Japanese emperor, but Papa counters by asking the interrogator’s age. Papa laments that though he has been living in the United States nine years longer than the twenty-nine-year-old interrogator, he is prevented from becoming a citizen. The interrogator again asks Papa who he wants to win the war. Papa responds by asking the interrogator whether, if his mother and father were fighting, he would want them to kill each other or to just stop fighting.

Chapter 8

Papa moves into the crowded barracks with Mama and Jeanne, and does not go outside for what seems like months. Mama brings him meals from the mess halls, and he makes rice wine and brandy with extra portions of rice and canned fruit. He spends day after day getting drunk, cursing, and vomiting, and wakes up every morning moaning. Jeanne thinks Papa never goes out because he feels more powerful to the others, but in the restroom one day she overhears some Terminal Island women whispering about Papa and using the word “inu.” Inu literally means “dog” but can also refer to collaborators and informers. The women call Papa “inu” because he was released from Fort Lincoln earlier than the other men and is rumored to have bought his release by informing on the others.
When Mama reports the incident to Papa, he flies into a rage, cursing her for disappearing, not bringing him his food on time, and helping to spread the rumors that keep him inside the barracks all day. He threatens to kill her. Mama encourages him to strike, but when Papa raises his cane, Kiyo emerges from the bed where he has been hiding and punches Papa in the face. Papa stares at him in rage and respect, but Kiyo runs out the door. Jeanne is proud of Kiyo but feels that everything is collapsing around her. Kiyo hides in an older sister’s room for two weeks before coming to ask Papa’s forgiveness. Papa accepts his apology, but Jeanne’s sense of loss grows deeper as Papa continues to get drunk and abuse Mama.