Holt Library: Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II: Vocabulary, timeline, maps, projects

Some of the terms used in the posters

Vocabulary

Executive Order 9066:

Signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt ten weeks after Pearl Harbor, this order authorized the removal and incarceration of “any and all persons” from areas of the country deemed vulnerable to attack or sabotage.

Nisei:

A person born in the United States or Canada whose parents were immigrants from Japan.

Issei:

A Japanese immigrant to North America.

Links

Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II
This collection includes objects and resources related to Japanese incarceration during World War II.
Civics +3. Age Levels: 13 to Adult
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) raises awareness of the experience of immigration into America through the Pacific of hundreds of thousands of immigrants. The AIISF preserves and interprets this National Historic Landmark, which “reminds us of the complicated history of immigration in America.”
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project
Densho’s mission is to “preserve and share history of the WWII incarceration of Japanese Americans to promote equity and justice today.” They provide access to an extensive
16
collection of interviews, photographs, and other documents on immigration, family history, incarceration, and civil rights in the Japanese American community.
Zinn Education Project:the Japanese American Internment lesson plans
World War II, like so many other events in history, presents the teacher with an overwhelming range of topics. The rise of Nazism and fascism in Europe, the Holocaust, the military history and diplomacy of the war, the attack on Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific, the Nuremberg Trials, the dropping of atomic bombs, the beginnings of the Cold War—there is no way to cover all these events in class.
One event that invariably gets neglected is the war-time internment of Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. Serious investigation of the internment [may] contradict the traditional presentation of the U.S. role in the war—how U.S. ingenuity and power turned back Hitler, liberated the concentration camps, halted Japanese expansionism, and generally fought the good fight. Such an interpretation does not leave much room for aberrations, particularly one as anti-democratic as the Japanese internment.
more...less...
This lesson was published by Rethinking Schools in Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice (Volume 2). For more lessons like “A Lesson on the Japanese American Internment,” order Rethinking Our Classrooms: Teaching for Equity and Justice (Volume 2) with a rich collection of from-the-classroom articles, curriculum ideas, lesson plans, poetry, and resources.

Suggested learning strategies and thoughts for Honors projects

This poster exhibition can help students build their critical thinking and communication skills, using any of the following suggested learning strategies.

Stations: Armed with the framing questions, students engage in a series of explorations and discussions with one poster at a time.

Jigsaw Groups: Students become experts on the topics, concepts, and questions of one poster, and bring their findings to a new group with students who focused on different posters. Conclusions related to the framing questions can be shared and further discussed with the class.

Panel or Fishbowl Discussions: Students work in teams to dive into the framing questions using the full set of posters. In collaboration with their teammates, representatives from each group participate in a panel discussion or fishbowl conversation to communicate their conclusions and learn from their peers.

Creative Writing and Performance: After analyzing the posters and compelling questions, students document their conclusions through a creative writing exercise. Students can be asked to share their thoughts through a variety of performance media including museum exhibits, slam poetry, or songwriting.

Exhibit aligns with Historical Thinking; Common Core standards for reading, writing, and speaking and listening;College, Career and Civic Life Standards

Facing History and Ourselves

Related resources for classroom use and for projects
More materials and information about Japanese American incarceration. Includes study guide to "Farewell to Manzanar," numerous current events lessons, and an on-demand professional learning webinar.

The language of incarceration

In the 1940s the War Relocation Authority, charged with implementing Executive Order 9066, used bureaucratic terminology to describe its operation. Scholars and members of the Japanese American community have since raised questions about how this language shaped or even distorted perceptions of the federal government’s actions. They have developed alternate terminology to more accurately describe what happened, terms that are gradually becoming more widely accepted.

These new terms are used throughout the poster exhibit. The summary table below is adapted from the 2013 Power of Words Handbook written by the National Japanese American Citizens League. The full handbook is located here: https://jacl.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Power-of-Words-Rev.-Term.-Handbook.pdf

ORIGINAL TERM CURRENT TERM

Exclusion Eviction

Evacuation Forced removal

Internment Incarceration

Internee Inmate

Assembly Center Temporary detention center

Relocation Center Incarceration camp

Download the educator's guide that accompanies this exhibition (.pdf)

Righting a Wrong: Japanese Americans and World War II, Poster Exhibition Educator's Guide

Complex and powerful questions are at the heart of the Righting a Wrong poster exhibition and an accompanying educators’ guide. The educator’s guide contains aligned standards and objectives, learning strategies, supplementary primary and secondary materials, close-looking guides for each poster, and additional educational resources.

The poster exhibition is designed around the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies and models the C3’s inquiry arc:

• Dimension 1: Developing questions and planning inquiries
• Dimension 2: Applying disciplinary tools and concepts
• Dimension 3: Evaluating sources and using evidence
• Dimension 4: Communicating conclusions and taking informed action

This Educators’ Guide, created by the Division of Education and Interpretation at the National Museum of American History, is free to download from the SITES website.