NHPRC QIH Assignment Title:

AP World History: Japanese Internment Project

NOTE: This assignment was created by the participant educator named above as part of the Queens Immigration History curriculum development project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission division of the National Archives (grant #DH-50022-16).  For more information on this grant project, please visit the Queens Immigration History website  at https://queensimmigrationhistory.wordpress.com     

NHPRC QIH Assignment Creator

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator David Richman  (C2, July 2018 – June 2019). Mr. Richman teaches Secondary Social Studies in the Valley Stream Central High School District. His content specialization is in AP World History, Global History, Participation in Government and Economics. David holds a Master of Education degree from Queens College. He is currently the faculty advisor of South High School’s mock trial team.

Summary/ Description Overview

Created by NHPRC Teacher Participant/Creator David Richman for his AP World History course. Adaptable to US History. Adaptable to other grades. Assignments ask students research the effects executive order 9066 had on families of Japanese descent, to analyze primary sources, and to create an illustrated story book detailing Ms. Wakatsuki’s time spent at Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp.

Purpose/Learning Goal

• To apply historical thinking (complexity, causality, change over time, contingency, context). 

• To create a project that connects world history to US History and personal family histories.

Objectives

• Students will research the effects executive order 9066 had on families of Japanese descent living in the United States during WWII.

• Students will analyze primary sources depicting the stories of families effected by executive order 9066.

• In demonstrating content knowledge, students will create an illustrated story book detailing Ms. Wakatsuki’s time spent at Manzanar, a Japanese Internment Camp Task/Assignment/Activity

Tasks/Activities:

Assignments ask students research the effects executive order 9066 had on families of Japanese descent, to analyze primary sources, and to create an illustrated story book detailing Ms. Wakatsuki’s time spent at Manzanar, a Japanese internment camp.

Task 1: Executive order 9066

In the wake of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066.

Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland. In the next 6 months, over 100,000 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry were moved to assembly centers. They were then evacuated to and confined in isolated, fenced, and guarded relocation centers, known as internment camps. 

Read Executive Order 9066 – this link provides both a scanned copy of the original document and a transcript.

Task 2: Use the NARA Website

Explore the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) webcatalog https://catalog.archives.gov/ with an emphasis on  NARA records related to Japanese internment.   Choose 3 documents that offer evidence of the effects that executive order 9066 had on families of Japanese descent living in the United States during WWII.  Keep track of the citation information for these documents, and keep notes on the evidence the document offers.

Task 3: Analyze primary source photos

Task 3: Use the NARA photo analysis worksheet to analyze these three primary source photos depicting the stories of families effected by executive order 9066.  Some photos offered below, you may also wish to review the National Archive photos of Manzanar from the War Relocation Authority Records Group

 Photo: Internees greeting new arrivals

Photo: Members of farm family board evacuation bus. Centerville, California.

Photo: Flag and pledge of allegiance at Raphael Weill Public School.

Task 4: read Farewell to Manzanar

Read Farewell to Manzanar, a memoir published in 1973 by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston. This book is a first-hand account of her family’s day to day life in a Japanese internment camp resulting from FDR’s executive order 9066 

Task 5: Illustrate a story book

·         Using the knowledge you have gained from your research and reading, create an illustrated story book detailing Ms. Wakatsuki’s time spent at Manzanar.  Students may choose a format of their choice to create the story book, i.e. Hand drawing, digital format etc. 

Task 6:  present story book to the class.

Required Resources

·         Executive Order 9066

·         National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) webcatalog

·         NARA photo analysis worksheet

More Resources from the NHPRCQIH LibGuide:

DPLA Tab for additional context, including the Japanese Internment Primary Source set and the Prisoners at Home: Everyday Life in Japanese Internment Camps online exhibit.

Attribution:

This NHPRC Teacher Participant assignment was created by   David Richman

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