The Thought: Japanese-Americans reacted to and coped with the experience of being incarcerated in a variety of ways. They created and maintained communities as best as possible despite the denial of freedoms and harsh conditions in incarceration camps.
Description: Students will explore the varied experiences of incarcerated Japanese-Americans through historical photographs, diaries, essays, and poetry.
Student Objectives:
1. Identify different ways individuals reacted to being incarcerated.
2. Compare and contrast the experiences of first- and second-generation Japanese-Americans in incarceration camps.
3. Analyze how Japanese-Americans created and maintained community while incarcerated.
Timeframe: Each activity is designed to take approximately 30 minutes. We encourage teachers to choose which activities best fit their classes.
Materials: Japanese-American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) website, Minidoka Irrigator newspaper, Worksheet 4.1, art supplies for making collages
Readings: Stanley Hayami’s diary (pages 8, 16, 91, 93, 94), Issei Testimony, Nisei Essays, Densho poetry handout, The Minidoka Story (for extension activity), Poston Camp II, Block 211 (for extension activity)
Vocabulary:
barrack
block
evacuee
incarceration
internee
Minidoka
repatriation
Additional Resources: Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle by David A. Takami (pg. 51-72), Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans by Maisie and Richard Conrat, Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Densho Digital Archive, American Concentration Camps (video: contains mild language)
Teacher Preparation: Read pg. 51-66 of Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle. Browse through the images on the JARDA website and choose which photos to present to the class. You may also wish to listen to some of the oral histories on the Densho Digital Archive page to hear Japanese-Americans speak about their experiences.
Activity 1: Photograph Analysis
1. Show students photographs from the JARDA website or the Minidoka Irrigator newspaper. Ask students to choose one photo they really like or feel drawn to, and write a few sentences about why they chose that photo. Invite students to share their writing with the class.
2. Ask students to look at the photos again, and discuss the following questions as a class.
a) What do you notice about the climate and environment of the incarceration camps?
b) What was daily life like in camps? Where did people eat, sleep, bathe, and do laundry?
c) How were workplaces and schools different inside the camps?
d) How do you think camp life affected family relationships?
e) How do you think lack of privacy affected people in the camps?
f) How did Japanese-American build a sense of community inside the camps?
g) How did institutions and events such as schools, sports teams, and festivals affect the sense of community?
3. Read the captions on the photographs. (The captions on the JARDA website were mostly written by photographers working for the government, while the captions in the Minidoka Irrigator were written by people incarcerated in the camp.) What euphemisms do the captions use? How do the captions try to put a positive spin on camp life? Do you think the captions tell the entire story? Have each student pick one photograph and write an alternative caption.
Other sources for incarceration camp photos include the following:
Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans by Maisie and Richard Conrat
A More Perfect Union (Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibition)
War Relocation Authority Photographs: (click on “Online items available”)
Activity 2: Stanley Hayami’s Diary
1. Tell the students they will be reading diary entries by Stanley Hayami, a Japanese-American teenager in the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. [Stanley’s diary is also featured in Lesson 2.] What sort of topics do you think he was writing about? Show students Stanley’s drawing of his house. Ask what they think Stanley was feeling when he drew this picture. How would you feel if your living situation changed the way Stanley’s did?
2. Pass out copies of Stanley’s diary. Have students silently read the entries and make a list of the subjects Stanley writes about. [Answers might include his parents, relationships with siblings, his sister going to college, the weather, sports, his grades, dances, and joining the army.] Discuss the answers as a class. Do the sorts of things Stanley writes about surprise you? Do you write about similar subjects in a journal or on social media?
3. Divide students into pairs. Have them re-read the diary entries and answer the following questions.
a) What is Stanley happy about?
b) What difficulties does Stanley face? What does he worry about?
c) How do you think his life in camp was different than his life before World War II?
d) How does Stanley’s attitude change between his first and last entries?
e) How does Stanley feel about the future?
4. Have students share their answers with the class. Ask them if they think every teenager in the incarceration camps felt the same way as Stanley. What other reactions might teenagers have had to living in Heart Mountain?
5. Ask students to imagine what happens to Stanley after the last entry in his diary. Have them write a diary entry from Stanley’s perspective, describing what happens after he leaves camp to join the army. [Japanese-Americans in the army will be explored further in Lesson 5.] Alternatively, students could write a diary entry from the perspective of one of Stanley’s family members or friends, describing how they feel as Stanley leaves the camp.
Activity 3: Issei and Nisei Experiences
1. Tell students they will be reading about the experiences of both first-generation (Issei) and second-generation (Nisei) individuals. The Issei were mostly adults at the time of the incarceration, while most of the Nisei were teenagers or children. Ask students to speculate on how the experiences and reactions of the two groups might have been different. For example, a parent might be worried about providing for children, while a small child might be excited about moving to a new place.
2. Pass out Worksheet 4.1 to each student. Divide the class into four equal groups and give one Issei testimony to each group [there are four different testimonies]. This testimony is taken from hearings held in Seattle in 1981, forty years after World War II. Have students read the testimony and answer the questions in Part A of the worksheet. [Students could either answer the questions in groups or individually.]
3. Give one Nisei essay to each group [there are four different essays: Amy Mitamura, Henry Fukuhara, Hatsuye Imanashi, Tom Kodama]. These essays were written by ninth-graders in 1942 in the Minidoka camp. Have students read the essays and answer the questions in part B of the worksheet. After they have read both documents, have them fill out Part C of the worksheet.
http://www.lib.washington.edu/specialcollections/collections/exhibits/harmony
4. Have students find a partner who read about different people, and share their answers with each other. Discuss how people within the same generation had different experiences. Remind students that the Nisei essays were written in the incarceration camps, while the Issei testimonies were recorded forty years after the incarceration. How might the passage of time affect each individual’s recollections of their experiences?
5. Have students write short essays comparing and contrasting the experiences of the Issei and Nisei, and examining the factors that led to differences and similarities. The essay should include specific evidence from the readings.
Activity 4: Poetry Analysis
1Tell students they will be discussing poetry. Ask them to brainstorm reasons why people might write poetry and write their ideas on the board. Ask students which of these reasons might apply to Japanese-Americans in incarceration camps.
2. Divide students into five equal groups and give each group one of the poems from the Densho poetry handout. Ask them to read the poem and answer the following questions as a group.
a) What is the mood of the poem?
b) Where is the poem set?
c) What imagery is present in the poem?
d) What do you think is the message of the poem? Who is its audience?
e) Do you think the title of the poem is appropriate? If not, can you think of a good title?
3. Have each group read their poem out loud and share their answers to the questions. Discuss the similarities and differences between each poem. Point out that the poets were all different ages when they were incarcerated; how does age affect the poet’s perspective on his/her experiences? (The differences are particularly evident in the poems “Sand”, written by an older man, and “Heart Mountain, My Home”, written from the perspective of a six-year-old.)
4. Pass out collage-making supplies such as magazines, newspapers, construction paper, and markers. Have each student assemble a collage expressing the mood and message of the poem they read. Encourage students to be creative with this assignment.
5. Invite students to share and explain their collages to the class.
Extension Activity: Graphic Novels
The Thought: Japanese-Americans reacted to and coped with the experience of being incarcerated in a variety of ways. They created and maintained communities as best as possible despite the denial of freedoms and harsh conditions in incarceration camps.
Description: Students will explore the varied experiences of incarcerated Japanese-Americans through historical photographs, diaries, essays, and poetry.
Student Objectives:
1. Identify different ways individuals reacted to being incarcerated.
2. Compare and contrast the experiences of first- and second-generation Japanese-Americans in incarceration camps.
3. Analyze how Japanese-Americans created and maintained community while incarcerated.
Timeframe: Each activity is designed to take approximately 30 minutes. We encourage teachers to choose which activities best fit their classes.
Materials: Japanese-American Relocation Digital Archives (JARDA) website, Minidoka Irrigator newspaper, Worksheet 4.1, art supplies for making collages
Readings: Stanley Hayami’s diary (pages 8, 16, 91, 93, 94), Issei Testimony, Nisei Essays, Densho poetry handout, The Minidoka Story (for extension activity), Poston Camp II, Block 211 (for extension activity)
Vocabulary:
barrack
block
evacuee
incarceration
internee
Minidoka
repatriation
Additional Resources: Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle by David A. Takami (pg. 51-72), Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans by Maisie and Richard Conrat, Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston, Densho Digital Archive, American Concentration Camps (video: contains mild language)
Teacher Preparation: Read pg. 51-66 of Divided Destiny: A History of Japanese Americans in Seattle. Browse through the images on the JARDA website and choose which photos to present to the class. You may also wish to listen to some of the oral histories on the Densho Digital Archive page to hear Japanese-Americans speak about their experiences.
Activity 1: Photograph Analysis
1. Show students photographs from the JARDA website or the Minidoka Irrigator newspaper. Ask students to choose one photo they really like or feel drawn to, and write a few sentences about why they chose that photo. Invite students to share their writing with the class.
2. Ask students to look at the photos again, and discuss the following questions as a class.
a) What do you notice about the climate and environment of the incarceration camps?
b) What was daily life like in camps? Where did people eat, sleep, bathe, and do laundry?
c) How were workplaces and schools different inside the camps?
d) How do you think camp life affected family relationships?
e) How do you think lack of privacy affected people in the camps?
f) How did Japanese-American build a sense of community inside the camps?
g) How did institutions and events such as schools, sports teams, and festivals affect the sense of community?
3. Read the captions on the photographs. (The captions on the JARDA website were mostly written by photographers working for the government, while the captions in the Minidoka Irrigator were written by people incarcerated in the camp.) What euphemisms do the captions use? How do the captions try to put a positive spin on camp life? Do you think the captions tell the entire story? Have each student pick one photograph and write an alternative caption.
Other sources for incarceration camp photos include the following:
Executive Order 9066: The Internment of 110,000 Japanese Americans by Maisie and Richard Conrat
A More Perfect Union (Smithsonian National Museum of American History exhibition)
Topaz Museum archives
War Relocation Authority Photographs: (click on “Online items available”)
Activity 2: Stanley Hayami’s Diary
1. Tell the students they will be reading diary entries by Stanley Hayami, a Japanese-American teenager in the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming. [Stanley’s diary is also featured in Lesson 2.] What sort of topics do you think he was writing about? Show students Stanley’s drawing of his house. Ask what they think Stanley was feeling when he drew this picture. How would you feel if your living situation changed the way Stanley’s did?
2. Pass out copies of Stanley’s diary. Have students silently read the entries and make a list of the subjects Stanley writes about. [Answers might include his parents, relationships with siblings, his sister going to college, the weather, sports, his grades, dances, and joining the army.] Discuss the answers as a class. Do the sorts of things Stanley writes about surprise you? Do you write about similar subjects in a journal or on social media?
3. Divide students into pairs. Have them re-read the diary entries and answer the following questions.
a) What is Stanley happy about?
b) What difficulties does Stanley face? What does he worry about?
c) How do you think his life in camp was different than his life before World War II?
d) How does Stanley’s attitude change between his first and last entries?
e) How does Stanley feel about the future?
4. Have students share their answers with the class. Ask them if they think every teenager in the incarceration camps felt the same way as Stanley. What other reactions might teenagers have had to living in Heart Mountain?
5. Ask students to imagine what happens to Stanley after the last entry in his diary. Have them write a diary entry from Stanley’s perspective, describing what happens after he leaves camp to join the army. [Japanese-Americans in the army will be explored further in Lesson 5.] Alternatively, students could write a diary entry from the perspective of one of Stanley’s family members or friends, describing how they feel as Stanley leaves the camp.
Worksheet 4.1
Worksheet 4.1
Activity 3: Issei and Nisei Experiences
1. Tell students they will be reading about the experiences of both first-generation (Issei) and second-generation (Nisei) individuals. The Issei were mostly adults at the time of the incarceration, while most of the Nisei were teenagers or children. Ask students to speculate on how the experiences and reactions of the two groups might have been different. For example, a parent might be worried about providing for children, while a small child might be excited about moving to a new place.
Issei Testimonies
Issei Testimonies
2. Pass out Worksheet 4.1 to each student. Divide the class into four equal groups and give one Issei testimony to each group [there are four different testimonies]. This testimony is taken from hearings held in Seattle in 1981, forty years after World War II. Have students read the testimony and answer the questions in Part A of the worksheet. [Students could either answer the questions in groups or individually.]
Nisei Essays
Nisei Essays
3. Give one Nisei essay to each group [there are four different essays: Amy Mitamura, Henry Fukuhara, Hatsuye Imanashi, Tom Kodama]. These essays were written by ninth-graders in 1942 in the Minidoka camp. Have students read the essays and answer the questions in part B of the worksheet. After they have read both documents, have them fill out Part C of the worksheet.
4. Have students find a partner who read about different people, and share their answers with each other. Discuss how people within the same generation had different experiences. Remind students that the Nisei essays were written in the incarceration camps, while the Issei testimonies were recorded forty years after the incarceration. How might the passage of time affect each individual’s recollections of their experiences?
5. Have students write short essays comparing and contrasting the experiences of the Issei and Nisei, and examining the factors that led to differences and similarities. The essay should include specific evidence from the readings.
Activity 4: Poetry Analysis
1Tell students they will be discussing poetry. Ask them to brainstorm reasons why people might write poetry and write their ideas on the board. Ask students which of these reasons might apply to Japanese-Americans in incarceration camps.
2. Divide students into five equal groups and give each group one of the poems from the Densho poetry handout. Ask them to read the poem and answer the following questions as a group.
a) What is the mood of the poem?
b) Where is the poem set?
c) What imagery is present in the poem?
d) What do you think is the message of the poem? Who is its audience?
e) Do you think the title of the poem is appropriate? If not, can you think of a good title?
3. Have each group read their poem out loud and share their answers to the questions. Discuss the similarities and differences between each poem. Point out that the poets were all different ages when they were incarcerated; how does age affect the poet’s perspective on his/her experiences? (The differences are particularly evident in the poems “Sand”, written by an older man, and “Heart Mountain, My Home”, written from the perspective of a six-year-old.)
4. Pass out collage-making supplies such as magazines, newspapers, construction paper, and markers. Have each student assemble a collage expressing the mood and message of the poem they read. Encourage students to be creative with this assignment.
5. Invite students to share and explain their collages to the class.
Extension Activity: Graphic Novels
Have students read the graphic novel The Minidoka Story by Sat Ichikawa (suitable for elementary school students) or Poston Camp II, Block 211 by Jack Matsuoka (appropriate for sixth grade and up). Discuss what life was like for children in the incarceration camps based on the images and stories in the books. How might you have reacted if you lived under the same conditions?
Have students read the graphic novel The Minidoka Story by Sat Ichikawa (suitable for elementary school students) or Poston Camp II, Block 211 by Jack Matsuoka (appropriate for sixth grade and up). Discuss what life was like for children in the incarceration camps based on the images and stories in the books. How might you have reacted if you lived under the same conditions?