Category: Japanese American Internment

Small Stones: A Recap

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Here’s what we’ve been up to since our initial post in November 2016:

Curating Curricula and Lesson Plans: 

We prioritize finding lesson plans and curricula that are high-quality, free to access and use, and applicable to the present political reality.

Reading Lists and Research:

We highlight resources and background reading that can be helpful for educators and students.

Original Lesson Plans and Activities:

Small stones creates lesson plans and activities where they don’t already exist. Keep an eye on this space for more coming soon.

Dorothea Lange and Japanese Internment

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Anchor Editions has some wonderful primary source photographs of the process of Japanese American Internment, taken by none other than the photographer Dorothea Lange. Unlike many of Lange’s other images, these works are not well known–by design. Until 2006, they were quietly kept in the National Archives, unpublished.

This material makes an excellent companion to the curricular material highlighted in our previous post.

Particularly chilling are these words from General DeWitt, justifying the internment action. Emphasis ours:

…It, therefore, follows that along the vital Pacific Coast over 112,000 potential enemies, of Japanese extraction, are at large today. There are indications that these are organized and ready for concerted action at a favorable opportunity.

The very fact that no sabotage has taken place to date is a disturbing and confirming indication that such action will be taken.”

— General John L. DeWitt, head of the U.S. Army’s Western Defense Command

Approaching Internment in the Classroom

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Here are a few existing resources to help students deal with the period of Japanese internment in the United States during World War II.

Resource ♣ “Amendment Violation: Japanese American Internment and the United States Constitution”

From the National World War II Museum, this is a 9-12 grade curriculum that includes readings on the Bill of Rights and Japanese internment camps in order to help students analyze how and why internment was a violation of multiple Constitutional Amendments. The curriculum also contains some detailed enrichment activities as possible extensions.

The curriculum is available as a PDF.

Resource ♣ “Japanese American Internment: Fear Itself”

The Library of Congress created this 5-8th grade curriculum. It is spread across multiple links and includes primary sources, such as photographs and online exhibits. Some of the student primary source framing material is basic, but it can be applied to a variety of documents. The writing that students are asked to do is varied, including creating a two-voice poem and newspaper article.

The curriculum is available via a series of links. Notable is the tool that allows teachers to search Common Core and other state education standards to check alignment.

Resource ♣  Allegiance, the musical: Educational Resources

While the educators’ material isn’t ready yet, I’m posting this in hopes that it will be soon! This is actor George Takei’s passion project, a musical based on his family’s experience in internment camps during World War II.