Jeanne, no less a challenge to Ko's authority than Woody or Kiyo, cultivates friendship with Radine, the stereotypical blond, flirtatious all-American miss who flourished in the 1940s. Content with Asian features, Jeanne comments, "I never wanted to change my face or to be someone other than myself. What I wanted was the kind of acceptance that seemed to come so easily to Radine." The only route to an acceptable level of social acceptance was through defiance of Ko and emulation of Radine.
As a glimpse of family, the story depicts a universal truth — that children often adopt their parents' idiosyncracies by applying them to new situations. For Jeanne and Woody, the future does not lie in physical emigration from Japan but in spiritual emigration from tradition. The tensions brought about by arguments, Ko's ultimatums, and an undercurrent of misbehavior and challenge push Woody into tedious arguments and Jeanne to the extremes of her love-hate relationship with Ko.
The sufferings of Manzanar are summed up in Jeanne's wavering regard for her father. She visualizes her shame at Manzanar in terms of Ko's downfall. She admires his pluck; she abhors his vulgarity and bluster. When Mama takes over the family's financial support, Jeanne confesses that Papa no longer deserves respect, an admission which wounds her more deeply than it hurts Ko. The aspects of Ko's personality which fill her with pride are the qualities she pursues. Yet, it is impossible for her, a modern American female, to emulate Oriental male bravado. Her struggle leads her far afield to the formation of a new nuclear unit, the first Wakatsuki to marry out of her race and produce mixed-race children.
