Camp life grows difficult as a result of pro-Japanese riots and forced loyalty oaths. Many young men, including Woody, disagree with the older generation and sign up for the military as a means of proving their loyalty. Later, to prove his sense of manhood, Ko rejects leaving Manzanar in a bus and returns his clan two hundred and twenty-five miles to Long Beach via three round trips in a blue, used Nash automobile. The family locates an apartment in Cabrillo Homes, a flimsy housing project in west Long Beach. Mama works in a fish cannery; Ko is unable to find work commensurate with his need for self-esteem.
In 1951, the family moves to the Santa Clara Valley, where Ko returns to farming and raises strawberries. Jeanne rebels against Ko's strict traditionalism by serving as a majorette and being elected homecoming queen. The first Wakatsuki to gain a college degree, she marries James D. Houston, a Caucasian. In April 1972, thirty years after her family's humiliation and loss of livelihood, Jeanne Houston takes her three children to visit the skeletal remains of Manzanar. Her memories return to her father and his defiance of the racist edict that cost the family their home, business, and belongings.
