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Look carefully at the above photograph. What do you see? As you read through the following questions, record your observations on a piece of paper.
Compare your observations with the database of historic and biographical information for this photograph. How accurate were your observations? As you continue through this lesson, you will step back in time to the West Coast shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor . . .
On December 7, 1941, Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The United States was now at war. There are many books and movies that tell the stories of those who fought and lived through World War II. Few books, however, tell the stories of the Japanese Americans living in the Sacramento area during the war years. How did the war with Japan affect their lives? Their heritage was Japanese, but many of them were US citizens. As immigrants and citizens, they had worked hard and contributed significantly to the farming economy in the Sacramento area. Surely, they would continue to be productive citizens, accepting both the responsibilities and privileges of citizenship. . .
On February 19, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. Japanese Americans, regardless of citizenship, were ordered to leave the West Coast. Over 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry were soon forced into internment camps.
Team up with another classmate to create a character who can tell what it was like to be ordered out of Sacramento and transported to the Tule Lake Internment Camp. Together you and your partner will research California's largest internment camp and then put together a scrapbook to tell your character's story.
In the novel Journey to Topaz, Yuki Sukane guides the reader from Berkeley to Topaz. In Under the Blood Red Sun, Tomi describes the hardships of Japanese Americans living in Hawaii. In Farewell to Manzanar, Jeanne Wakatsuki takes us from Long Beach to Manzanar. Who will your character be? What stories and insights will your character share as he/she guides the reader from Sacramento to the Tule Lake Internment Camp?
The easiest way to create a believable character is to ask your character a set of questions related to his/her past and present. In order to know how your character would have reacted to the events following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Executive Order 9066, you need to probe into his/her personality. Hint: Do not name your character after someone you actually know. You want your character to develop into a unique yet average person living during extraordinary times.
Use the following questions to help you create your character. Add any questions you feel will help develop his/her personality. A visit to the Photo Album will help you travel back to the time and setting of your character's scrapbook: California in the1940's.
Half the work has already been done for you! The photographs in the Photo Album belong to your character. Include at least six of them in your scrapbook. Research the database for background information on each photo. Think about how the historic and biographical data would tie in to your character's life.
In addition to the six photographs, you will need to create a minimum of three personal artifacts belonging to your character (for example: a ticket to a special event, a graduation announcement, a postcard or letter from a friend or relative, a travel brochure, a ticket for passage to Japan, a poem, a newspaper article from the Sacramento Bee, a real estate ad for the Sacramento area).
Once you have selected and researched your photographs and created your character's personal artifacts, you are ready to start assembling his/her scrapbook. The opening page of your scrapbook should begin with a biographical sketch in the form of a letter or a journal entry from your character, introducing him/herself. The last page of your scrapbook should be an "I Am Poem." Refer to your character interview and the database for ideas on what to include in your introductory letter/journal entry and I Am poem. Bind your scrapbook and design an eye-catching cover.
Check with your teacher or school librarian for books, magazine articles, CD-ROMs, or videos on Japanese Internment. If you have access to the Internet, see the Teacher Notes section of this lesson for useful URLs.
As you can see from either the holistic or analytical rubric, research, detail, historical accuracy, and creativity are essential to a full-credit scrapbook. The key to a successful project is using your in-class and after-school research time well. Since this is a team project, be sure to use leadership and do your fair share of the work.
Your end product will be a piece of historical fiction that documents an unfortunate but significant part of modern history. Through the voice of your character, readers will learn about the unconstitutional treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. An informed public is the best guarantee that such a travesty of justice will never again occur to any group of people.
The internment of thousands of Japanese Americans was a violation of their constitutional rights. Are you aware of the rights guaranteed to you under the U.S. Constitution? Read through the Bill of Rights (the first 10 amendments to the Constitution). Are any of these amendments currently being discussed in local news? National news? Can you find a newspaper article or magazine article that refers to the Constitution?
Read through the Bill of Rights again. Which amendment do you consider to be the most important? Why?
Lesson developed by Gail Desler, Elk Grove Unified School District