 |
|
||
|
The Price of Freedom: Learning about the Experience of Japanese Americans in World War IIThe following is a selection of resources available on the web to help educators introduce the story of Japanese Americans during and following World War II and launch a series of activities in their schools around the theme of “The Price of Freedom.” View the The Price of Freedom workshop in photos (teacher workshop, presented February 2, 2005 at the Seattle Buddhist Temple).
Jump to: The Price of Freedom program was inspired by a project originally created at Hamilton International School in Seattle.
A
More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution Hirasaki
National Resource Center As part of the Japanese American National Museum, the Hirasaki National Resource Center fosters a self-directed educational experience by connecting visitors to the Museum's wealth of resources which document Japanese American culture and life. Facts sheets, chronologies, and access to several of the museum's exhibits online are some of the resources that might come in handy when designing a unit on the Internment.
Japanese
American Citizens League Japanese-American
Internment Internet Guide Indiana University's National Clearinghouse for United States-Japan Studies has compiled a useful guide to online exhibits, archives, and curriculum resources available on the Internet pertaining to Japanese American Internment. National
Japanese American Historical Society The
Japanese American Internment
Children
of the Camps: The Documentary Densho:
The Japanese American Legacy Project Exploring
the Japanese Internment through Film and the Internet A project of the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA), this website utilizes a rich collection of video clips as a starting point for examining the many aspects and implications of the Japanese American internment. Here, more than two dozen short video clips from some of the best films available on the subject are featured along with brief historical text and images to illuminate the people, places, voices and circumstances that are part of this history. Rabbit
in the Moon PBS offers this companion website for Emiko and Chizu Omori's award-winning documentary about internment and the crisis it forced on members of the Japanese American community over whether to accept the injustice or fight it.
"Suffering
under
a Great Injustice" Here the Library of Congress has compiled a collection of Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar. Although a majority of the photographs are portraits, the images also include views of daily life, agricultural scenes, and sports and leisure activities. The
Camp Harmony Exhibit The Camp Harmony Exhibit is based on materials located in the University of Washington Libraries including newspapers, photographs, correspondence, books, and documents. The exhibit tells the story of Seattle's Japanese American community in the spring and summer of 1942 and their four month sojourn at the Puyallup Assembly Center known as "Camp Harmony."
Within
the Silence "In 1942 Roosevelt's Executive order 9066 imprisoned thousands of loyal American families. These innocent citizens struggled to maintain their families while incarcerated. Witness this silent chapter of our history. Share one Japanese American family's fight to sustain faith and love in the country they love." This production by Living Voices was written by Ken Mochizuki and co-produced by The Wing Luke Asian Museum.
Student Reading List (PDF) Educator Reading List (PDF) Hamilton
International School Resources on Japanese American Internment Rabbit
in the Moon Book List (from PBS) Rabbit
in the Moon Bibliography Connecting Past to Present Cornell News. "Fear factor: 44 percent of Americans
queried in Cornell national poll favor curtailing some liberties
for Muslim Americans" (Dec. 17, 2004). Haynes, V. Dion. “Support urged for Arab-Americans:
WW II camps still haunt memories” (2001). Muller, Eric L. “An Arab American Internment?” (2001). http://www.press.uchicago.edu/News/911muller.html Purcell, Jim. “We Must Stand Up for the Innocent
while Demanding Justice” (2001). “Recalling the U.S. Internment of the Japanese with Congressman Robert Matsui,” from JFK Library and Museum, radio transcription of Responding to Terrorism series (2001). http://www.jfklibrary.org/forum_matsui.html Roberts, Timothy M. “The 1942 Internments and Today's Security Crisis” (2001). http://www.h-net.org/~hns/articles/2001/101101a.html Zogby, James. “The Internment of Japanese
Americans: Sixty Years Later” (2002). http://www.aaiusa.org/wwatch/021802.htm
Through contacts in the Japanese American communities, Global Classroom will arrange classroom visits with Japanese Americans to talk with students about their experiences during WWII. In particular, we will identify Nisei (2nd generation Japanese, born in the U.S.) who served in the Army in the legendary 442 or in the Military Intelligence Service, as well as women who had to remain in the camps while their husbands, brothers, and sons went off to fight a war for a country that had stripped their families of their rights as citizens. The older Nisei (2nd generation Japanese) will be accompanied by Sansei or Yonsei (3rd and 4th generation Japanese) or other younger community members to help guide their conversations with the students. In this way, the experience will be cross-generational, and the stories of the Nisei will touch many lives. To find out more about our Classroom Speakers program,
please email You can download informational packets here:
We have put together the following packets of lesson plans from sources on the Internet: Here are additional websites to visit for lesson plans and curriculum: Building
Bridges: Ending Arab American Discrimination Densho:
The Japanese American Legacy Project “Home
was a Horse Stall” Lesson Introduction
to Issues Surrounding the Internment of Japanese Americans A curriculum for high school students developed by a Special Needs Teacher, Patricia Maye-Wilson, and posted at the Five College Center for East Asia Studies at Smith College. "By examining documents and pictorial representations, and viewing videos, students will begin to understand the Japanese-American experience in the western United States during World War II." Japanese
American Internment Curriculum
My
Friend is a Prisoner: Using the Novel Foster’s War
to Discuss an Adolescent Perspective of Japanese American Internment
and World War II A curriculum for 7-8 Social Studies developed by a teacher, Michelle Pearson, and posted at the Five College Center for East Asia Studies at Smith College. "This unit attempts to bring adolescents into a discussion about their lives and the lives of Foster, an Anglo American adolescent, and Jimmy, a Japanese American adolescent, who are best friends in the novel Foster’s War." Nothing
to Fear but Fear Itself This lesson for grades 5-8 by Gail Desler is posted
on the Library of Congress American Memory page. "The activities
in this lesson are designed to provide middle school students with
a window into the war years. Using primary sources, students will
explore a period in United States history when 120,000 Japanese
Americans were evacuated from the West Coast and held in internment
camps." Teacher’s
Guide for "Baseball Saved Us" by Ken Mochizuki
(PDF) Lee & Lew Books, an independent children's book publisher specializing in multicultural themes, has put together this classroom guide with prereading focus questions, postreading writing activities, and more. Appropriate for Grades 1-6. Themes: Japanese Americans, Internment Camps, World War II, Baseball, Prejudice. Teaching
with Documents Lesson Plan: Documents and Photographs
Related to Japanese Relocation during World War II From the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States government, this lesson plan begins with an overview of Japanese-American internment followed by links to archived photographs, governmental documents, and classroom activity worksheets. The
Japanese American Experience A curriculum for high school students
developed by a teacher, Alejandro Echevarria, and posted at the
Five College Center for East Asia Studies at Smith College. "The
goal of this unit is to help students grasp how truly pluralistic
the United States has become by focusing on the history of Japanese
Americans."
The lesson plans presented here would satisfy many Washington State standards for civics, history, and arts. For example, the Japanese American incarceration can be taught in grade 8 as part of Washington State history or in grade 8 or 11 for U.S. History, when students examine the effect of immigration on American culture and history. In addition, the writing, reading, and speaking activities would satisfy many of the standards in those areas. See the Essential Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs)
at the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction
website: Examples of EALRs that would be met by the lessons are: Social Studies: Civics
Social Studies: History
The Arts
As an alternative to an on-demand, pencil-and-paper test (like the Washington Assessment of Student Learning - WASL), the Legislature has funded the development of Classroom-Based Assessments (CBAs) for the Social Studies. These project-based assessments are currently being developed and piloted by teachers in Washington State working with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. They are aligned with Washington's standards (Essential Academic Learning Requirements). For more information, see Classroom-Based
Assessments The following CBAs would work well using material from the Japanese American Experience in World War II.
The "Price of Freedom: Learning about the Experience of Japanese Americans in World War II" was funded by a 2004-2005 Washington State Civil Liberties Public Education grant to the World Affairs Council Global Classroom. We are grateful to Hamilton International Middle School and Densho for their support in putting on the "Price of Freedom: Teaching about the Japanese American Experience in World War II" workshop on February 2, 2005.
|
||||||||||
5/11/05