Learning Center: Lesson Plan: High School: Japanese Internment
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Title: Evacuation: The Japanese Americans in World War II
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
• Understand the U.S. government’s actions that led to the evacuation of Japanese Americans in 1942.
• Analyze primary and secondary sources.
• Describe life during the early months of evacuation.
• Identify racial and other forms of bias at the time.
Standards Met:
History:
• Identify and understand significant events, developments, groups, and people in the history of Oregon after 1900.
Social Science Analysis:
• Analyze an event, issue, problem or phenomenon; identifying characteristics, influences, causes and both short and long-term effects.
Materials/Resources Needed:
• Japanese Relocation Camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming
• Notice on Yasui Brothers Store, Hood River, Oregon
• Japanese Evacuees, North Portland Assembly Center
• Japanese Evacuee Tops Sugar Beets
• Oregon House Joint Memorial No. 9
Anticipatory Set:
After the events of September 11, 2001, there was much discussion about racial profiling. Frequently, the experience of Japanese Americans in World War II was cited as the historical example of what should not happen.
Pose this question to students:
After the 9/11 attacks, should the government have detained people of Arab heritage or Muslim belief? Why or why not? Are there circumstances that would make your response different? For example, if the person was not a citizen, if his or her parents were not citizens, or if the person belonged to a radical political group, etc.?
Background to the lesson:
After Pearl Harbor was bombed on December 7, 1941, the U.S. entered World War II against Japan, Germany, and Italy. Japanese Americans on the West Coast were targeted as threats to national security. Executive Order 9066 allowed the U.S. military to relocate Japanese to detention centers. Thousands of citizens and legal aliens were detained during the war, but no Japanese American was ever found to have collaborated with the enemy.
Lesson Description:
• Distribute copies of Oregon in Depression and War, 1925-45: Relocation Camps
Have students read narrative and respond to the following questions:
1. Why was March 1942 a significant date for Oregon’s Japanese Americans?
2. What was the purpose of the “War Relocation Authority?” Why was it issued?
3. In what ways were the 10 Northwest and California relocation camps similar to concentration camps?
4. How did the city of Portland limit the freedoms of its Japanese citizens prior to the relocation order?
5. What was the U.S. Supreme Court’s response to the 3 challenges to the evacuation command?
6. Did the evacuation order violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of American citizens?
7. Compare and contrast Oregon’s reaction to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, to the terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C. on September 11, 2001.
• Distribute copies of the photo: Japanese Relocation Camp at Heart Mountain, Wyoming
After examining the photograph and reading the corresponding caption have students respond to the following questions:
1. How were the Japanese Americans living in the Northwest affected by the attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941?
2. Where were Japanese Americans interned? Why?
3. What was the difference between the Japanese living in Oregon and the Northwest labeled issei and those called nisei?
4. Why was Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942? What do you think was the government’s intent in issuing this order?
5. How did this order change the lives of those Japanese Americans who lived on the West Coast?
6. Imagine that you were a government official in February of 1942, would you have supported Executive Order 9066? Why or why not?
• Distribute copies of Oregon in Depression and War, 1925-45: Japanese Removal
Have students complete the reading and respond orally or in writing to the following questions:
1. Do you agree with historian Roger Daniels’ statement that the removal of more than
100,000 Japanese Americans from the Pacific Coast and their resettlement in the interior areas of the West brought about “one of the grossest violations of the constitutional rights of American citizens in our history?” Why or why not? What historical evidence can you relate to this incident?
2. Was the relocation of Japanese Americans a political or military decision? Cite evidence.
3. What similarities, if any, do you see with the relocation of Japanese-Americans in 1942 and the reaction of the U.S. government to the events of September 11, 2001? Be able to defend your position.
4. If you could interview President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who issued Executive Order 9066), what questions would you pose to him?
• Distribute copies of the document: Notice on Yasui Brothers Store, Hood River, Oregon
After reading the document and the corresponding caption either individually, in pairs or in a small group, have the students respond to the following questions:
1. What was the time line from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the closing of the Yasui Brothers Store to the FBI arrest of Masuo Yasui?
2. Why do you think the government acted so quickly?
3. What had Mr. Yasui done to warrant his arrest?
4. How long had Mr. Yasui and his brother owned the store in Hood River?
5. Why was Mr. Yasui separated from his family in an “alien detention” camp?
6. How was Mr. Yasui’s son punished for challenging the wartime curfew placed on Japanese Americans?
7.Should Mr. Yasui and his family been protected under the U.S. Constitution? Why or Why not?
• Distribute copies of the photograph: Japanese Evacuees, North Portland Assembly Center
After examining the photograph and reading the corresponding caption, have the students discuss orally and/or in writing the following questions:
1. What happened to Portland’s first and second generation Japanese Americans in May of 1942?
2. How does the photograph relate to the evacuation of both issei and nisei Japanese Americans?
3. Where did the Portland internees go from the North Portland Assembly Center? Why do you think they were moved?
4. How many Japanese Americans were incarcerated under Executive Order 9066? How many of this number were from Oregon?
5. How long after the start of the war was the Executive Order rescinded? What occurred when the released Japanese Americans returned to their homes?
6. Discuss the importance of the following dates in the history of Japanese internment:
1945
1968
1983
1987
1988
1990
• Distribute copies of the photograph: Japanese Evacuee Tops Sugar Beets
Use the photograph and the corresponding caption to stimulate discussion related to the following questions:
1. Why was Malheur County the only place in Oregon where Japanese were allowed to live outside of the internment camps?
2. What role did the Amalgamated Sugar Company have in the decision to allow for this evacuation exception?
3. How did the local farmers react to this decision? Why?
4. What evidence is offered to support the statement: “…anti-Japanese sentiment was evident.”
• Distribute and read copies of: Oregon in Depression and War, 1925-1945: Anti-Japanese Sentiment
• Distribute copies of document: Oregon House Joint Memorial Number 9
Have students read the document and the corresponding caption and respond to the following questions.
1. Who were the “renunciants”? Why were they sent to Japan after the war? When did the federal government of the U.S. finally cease to oppose their requests to regain their citizenship rights? Why do you think it took so long?
2. What according to the readings what was “the most egregious case of racism” in Hood River, Oregon? Why was this action considered to be so shameful? How would you explain the strong anti-Japanese sentiment during and following WW II?
3. What role did the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) play in attempting to seek justice for the Japanese Americans who had been interned in the relocation camps?
4. How did the government in 1990 redress the grievances of our country’s Japanese Americans? Do you think this was a responsible and just action? Why or why not?
5. As you read House Joint Memorial No. 9 think about:
a. How you would defend the request of the 43rd Legislative Assembly of Oregon in 1945?
b. How you would argue against the request?
6. What action did the Oregon legislature enact in 1945 when their request to the federal government was denied?
7. How long after the war’s end were Japanese immigrants allowed to become American Citizens?
Assessment:
• Have students create a fictional detainee and compose a description of him or her (age, personality, physical description). Students will create one week of a fictional diary for the detainee. The diary should describe living and working conditions in detention.
• James Y. Sakamoto of Seattle is quoted as saying “…And remember that if America, by her actions, seems to disown us, we will never disown America.” Have students compose a formal essay which responds to the following question:
Were Japanese Americans on the West Coast “disowned” by the United States during the Second World War? Present facts to support your position.
• Have students create a propaganda poster that reflects the messages that were given to Japanese during World War II. They should incorporate a slogan and a symbol appropriate for the messages.
Additional suggestion: If the teacher has war posters, Life magazines, or other forms of advertising from the period to show students, they can try to use artistic styles that replicate those.
Additional Resources:
• Through the local Veterans of Foreign War (VFW) find a World War II veteran and through a local military recruiting office find a person who is currently on active duty to come and speak to the class. Have students compose interview questions that stress issues of loyalty, tradition, and minority treatment along with areas of student interest having to do with overall society.
• Following the interviews, students can compose articles for the school paper or write letters to the local paper. Consider having a student photograph the event.
• Contact The Portland Oregon Visitors Association (POVA) for their brochure, “A Guide to Japanese American Heritage and Culture.” The brochure provides information about the Japanese American community in Portland and throughout the state of Oregon. POVA is located at 1000 SW Broadway, Suite 2300, Portland, OR 97205. Telephone: 503-275-9750.
• Have students read:
Wakatsuki, Jeanne Houston and James D. Houston. Farewell to Manzanar (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1973).
• The web site www.pbs.org/childofcamp/ contains information about internment, including historical documents like Executive Order 9066, a timeline of events related to evacuation and internment, and a listing of camps with population figures and dates of operation.
• Go to www.jainternment.org for more information about internment and available video resources.
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