Summary
This lesson addresses the circumstances that led up to the internment of Americans of Japanese descent during World War II. It asks students to consider the impact that internment had on the lives of those who were detained. Students will have opportunities to look at photos from internment camps and read the testimony from individuals who were imprisoned in those camps. They will also learn about important documents and court cases relating to the subject of Japanese-American internment, such as Executive Order 9066, Korematsu v. United States, and Ex parte Endo.
Essential Question(s)
Why were Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II? How did internment alter their lives?
Snapshot
Engage
Students read, analyze, and discuss a poem that a high school student wrote while she was detained at a relocation center during WWII.
Explore
Students use the Painting a Picture strategy to make observations and inferences about six photos that depict the hardships Japanese Americans endured before and during internment.
Explain
Students watch a video and read an article, both of which detail the circumstances surrounding the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. During this activity, they fill out Paired Texts H-Charts in order to understand how Japanese Americans dealt with the conditions that were forced upon them.
Extend
Students analyze a series of quotes from Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during WWII and explain their feelings about those quotes using the S-I-T strategy.
Evaluate
Students write a Two-Minute Paper answering the lesson’s essential questions. An optional activity provides them an opportunity to reconsider their feelings about the poem they read at the start of the lesson.
Materials
"The Upward Trail" (attached, one copy per student)
Lesson Slides (attached)
Painting a Picture Document Packets (attached, one copy per group)
Painting a Picture Chart Handouts (attached, one copy per student)
Painting a Picture Chart (Teacher’s Notes) (attached)
Paired Texts H-Chart Handout (attached, one copy per student)
Mistaken for the Enemy - Article (attached, one copy per student)
S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling) Handout (attached, one copy per student)
Paper and pencils/pens
Computers with internet access
Engage
15 Minute(s)
Begin by having students split into groups of four to read "The Upward Trail." Use the attached Lesson Slides to guide the lesson.
Display slide 3, which includes the following questions to guide their discussions:
What are your impressions of the place the author is describing?
What do you think the author was feeling as she wrote the poem?
What would you guess was the age of the author?
Where do you think she lived?
After about 10 minutes of discussion in groups, have a student from each group share with the class what their group thinks the poem is about.
Explain that the poem was written by Janet Matsuda, a high school student who had been detained along with other Japanese Americans during World War II at the Jerome War Relocation Center in Arkansas. Have the class discuss how their opinion of the poem changed after the discussion/sharing.
Before moving on, briefly display slides 4 and 5, which detail the essential questions and learning objectives of the lesson.
Explore
15 Minute(s)
Display slide 6. Introduce students to the Painting a Picture strategy. Tell students that, in their groups of four, they will examine a document packet containing six photos that depict the hardships Japanese Americans endured before and during internment.
Pass out the Painting a Picture Document Packets to each group, and pass out the Painting a Picture Chart Handouts to each student. Tell students that they will have about 15 minutes to make observations and inferences about the photos. For examples of potential observations and inferences, feel free to consult the Painting a Picture Chart (Teacher’s Notes).
Explain
35 Minute(s)
Pass out the Paired Texts H-Chart Handout to students.
Move to slide 13. Explain to students that they will watch a TED-Ed video, Ugly History: Japanese American Incarceration Camps. Instruct students to take notes as they watch. Have them take notes in the lefthand column of the Paired Texts H-Chart about the circumstances Japanese Americans faced and how they reacted to those circumstances. The video is approximately 5 minutes long and is found on slide 14. Give students extra time if they want to watch portions of the video again.
Give each student a copy of the Mistaken for the Enemy - Article, which summarizes the circumstances that led to the internment of Japanese Americans and details their experiences by including excerpts from oral history interviews.
Show slide 15 after students have finished watching the video. Ask students to use the Stop and Jot strategy. Instruct them to stop at the end of each paragraph to jot brief answers to the questions on the right side of the article handout. Have them add the most important points from their notes into the righthand column of the H-Chart once they have annotated each paragraph.
Once they have finished reading and taking notes, have students take a few moments to share some of the observations they have made so far.
Display slide 16 after volunteers have shared their observations about the video and/or the article. Have them confer with their group members and decide on a "third text" that weaves together the information they have gleaned from both sources. The question their third texts will answer is How did Japanese Americans cope with the hardships that they faced before, during, and after internment?
Ask students to add their responses from the Stop and Jot exercise to the Paired Texts H-Chart.
Extend
20 Minute(s)
Display slide 17. Pass out the S-I-T (Surprising, Interesting, Troubling) Handouts. This handout contains a list of quotes that were taken from oral history interviews and other sources. Give students at least 10 minutes to read over the list with their groups. Next, ask student groups to use the S-I-T strategy to determine and discuss why the information presented in the quotes strikes them as surprising, interesting, and/or troubling.
After groups have had time to make their decisions, call on a member of each group to share at least one of the quotes that they found surprising, interesting, and/or troubling. Invite student groups to share their reasoning with the class. Follow up student contributions to the discussion with questions that will help students consider why the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II was unjust and unconstitutional.
Evaluate
5 Minute(s)
Display slide 18, which lists the two essential questions of the lesson. Have students write on a blank sheet of paper a Two-Minute Paper that addresses the two essential questions:
Why were Japanese Americans imprisoned during World War II?
How did internment alter their lives?
There are several options for lesson assessments:
Two-Minute Papers
Painting a Picture Charts
Paired Texts H-Charts
Responses (written or oral) to the S-I-T activity
Resources
Albers, C. (1942, April 5). Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly Center. [Photograph]. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans/wra
Asaka, M. (2009, July 21). Yuri Kochiyama interview. Densho Digital Archive. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/media/encyc-psms/en-denshovh-kyuri-01-0009-1.htm
Brangham, W. (2019, October 23). George Takei on challenging the ‘mindless inhumanity’ of U.S. history’s darker chapters. PBS News Hour. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/george-takei-on-challenging-the-mindless-inhumanity-of-u-s-historys-darker-chapters#transcript
Fowlkes, J.F. (c. 1942). Crowd behind barbed wire fence waving to departing friends on train. [Photograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2004679931/
Ikeda, T. (2019, October). Ugly history: Japanese American incarceration camps. TED-Ed. https://www.ted.com/talks/densho_ugly_history_japanese_american_incarceration_camps?language=en
Imai, S. (2020, July 29). Korematsu v. United States. Densho Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Korematsu_v._United_States/
Ito, A., & Nomura, G. (2002, December 7-8). Kara Kondo interview. Densho Digital Archive. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/media/encyc-psms/en-denshovh-kkara-01-0032-1.htm
K20 Center. (2020, September 18). Immigration and the Asian American experience. 5E Lessons. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/lesson/362
K20 Center. (n.d.). Painting a picture. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/1331
K20 Center. (n.d.). Paired texts H-chart. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/132
K20 Center. (n.d.). S-I-T (Surprising, interesting, troubling). Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/926
K20 Center. (n.d.). Stop and jot. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/168
K20 Center. (n.d.). Two-minute paper. Strategies. https://learn.k20center.ou.edu/strategy/152
Lange, D. (1942, March 1). I Am an American. [Photograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans#/media/File:JapaneseAmericanGrocer1942.jpg
Lee, R. (1942, May 1). Child "Tagged for evacuation." [Photograph]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans#/media/File:Russell_Lee,_Tagged_for_evacuation,_Salinas,_California,_May_1942.jpg
Matsuda, J. (1944). The upward trail. Special Collections, University of Arkansas Libraries. https://digitalcollections.uark.edu/digital/collection/Civilrights/id/1549/
National Japanese American Historical Society. (c. 1923). A resident of Hollywood, California, makes clear her sentiments to any Japanese looking for housing in her neighborhood, around 1923. ?Smithsonian Institution. https://americanhistory.si.edu/righting-wrong-japanese-americans-and-world-war-ii/racism
National Museum of American History. (2017). Righting a wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II. Smithsonian Institution. https://americanhistory.si.edu/righting-wrong-japanese-americans-and-world-war-ii
Robinson, G. (2020, July 15). Ex parte Mitsuye Endo (1944). Densho Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/Ex_parte_Mitsuye_Endo_(1944)/
Rosenfeld, A. (2015, July 29). German and Italian detainees. Densho Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.densho.org/German_and_Italian_detainees/
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (2020, March 17). Japanese-American internment during World War II. https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation
U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. (1942). Persons of Japanese ancestry arrive at the Santa Anita Assembly Center. [Photograph]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internment_of_Japanese_Americans
Wakatsuki Houston, J.W., & Houston, J.D. (1973). Farewell to Manzanar. Houghton Mifflin Co.
