Japanese Internment in World War II

Title of UNIT: A Just Decision: Japanese Internment ?Author: G. Gurr Grade Level: High schoolSchool: James Hillhouse High School Time Estimated: 3-4, 45 minute classes

Brief Overview The lesson will enable students to utilize inquiry skills in primary source investigations to determine if the United States was justified in relocating those of Japanese origin during World War II.

Historical Inquiry Question

Was removal of Japanese Americans during WWII to relocation camp justified or a violation of their civil rights?

Content KnowledgeAs a result of this lesson, students will know American:

Reactions towards Pearl Harbor Process of relocating Japanese Korematsu v. Supreme court case: precedent and impact Japanese American soldiers during WWII Reparations to Japanese American

SkillsAs a result of this lesson, students will be able to practice the following skills:

Identify the purpose and ramifications of the Gentlemen’s agreement and the events and results of what took place on December 7, 1941

Infer reasons why the United States would justify removal of Japanese Americans

Analyze FDR’s response to Pearl Harbor and his Executive Order 9066

Analyze current reactions toward Muslim Americans post 9/11 Evaluate whether or not Japanese relocation was a violation of their

civil rights (or depending on the level of students: evaluate the justification of violating civil rights in times of national emergency.

CT Standards Addressed

Standard 1: Content Knowledge Standard 2: History/Social Studies Literacy Standard 3: Application

Prior Knowledge Entry Skills Identification: people, places, and events Compare and contrast: past to present Application to current trends and events Evaluate history and present historical perspective

Entry Knowledge Vocabulary: Espionage, Terrorism, Discrimination

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Civil Rights/Bill of Rights Alien and Sedition Acts

*Note: An entry test may be a viable way to determine student needs and lesson modifications

Resources needed Library of Congress Resources

Photo: Los Angeles, California. The evacuation of the Japanese-Americans from West Coast areas under U.S. Army war emergency order. Japanese-Americans waiting for a train to take them and their parents to Owens Valley.

Photo: Private Mitchie M. Miyamoto, U.S. Army.

Internet Resources

Document: Executive Order 9066http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=old&doc=74

Document: Congressional Record Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, U.S. Senate (1988)http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/Congressional%20Records/19880415.html

Document: Thank You Note in "Little Tokyo" in Los Angeles, California. Mr. and Mrs. K. Tseri have closed their drugstore in preparation for the forthcoming evacuation from their home and business. http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/#documents

Handout: Documents and Photographs Related to Japanese Relocation During World War II http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/

Handout: Discrimination Against Muslims, Arabs, South Asians in New York City Since 9/11 http://www .nyc.gov/html/cchr/pdf/sur_report.pdf

Visual resources Movie: Pearl Harbor, Chpt 19-20 Teachertube: Japanese Internment 9/11(Director James Hanlon)

(Many videos on youtube might be valuable substitutes)

Optional Extension resources Video: Schindler’s List, Band of Brothers: Episode 7, “why we fight,”

Process of Lesson Hook/Warm Up: Under what circumstances would you be willing to give up your constitutional rights? (provide copy of Bill of Rights if necessary)

Activity 1: Intro1. Video: Pearl Harbor attack2. Reactions/Discussion3. Vocabulary Exercise: “Espionage.” What does it mean and when in

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our history have been afraid of it?Who would the U.S. fear was plotting espionage against them after Pearl Harbor? Why?

4. Q and A: What would you have done if you were FDR?Would Japanese Americans pose a threat?

Activity 2: Hook Activity: What is the irony of the following quote: "If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?"

1. Explain to students they will investigate further the relocation of Japanese that began after Pearl Harbor in groups of 4

2. Inquiry Activity using documents 1-5 in a SAC inquiry activity 3. Groups provide consensus 4. Discuss overall class decisions5. Provide further background information have students read:

Background Handout

Activity 3: Application and Evaluation

1. Distribute copies of “Discrimination, Discrimination Against Muslims, Arabs, South Asians in New York City Since 9/11

2. Q and A: What is the response of Americans towards those that attack our country? Is this justified? Do you think our public lives such as airports should have tougher security on those that “look” Muslim? What are the implications of this?

3. Provide Essay question via a lead in from discussion4. Provide Rubric

Evaluation Performance Assessment: “Evaluate the following: Did Japanese internment violate the rights of those relocated and are such actions during national crisis ever acceptable?”

See attached Rubric/Use CAPT rubric if appropriate, seehttp://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/lib/sde/pdf/curriculum/captread/rcpt_73-76.pdf

Possibilities for Differentiation

Suggested Differentiation Strategies Modify background reading Utilized the ARC/LOC websites for more visual resources Use the video media to conduct inquiry Have students create a letter to their state senator expressing their

opinion on civil rights during national crisis Increase or decrease the rubric criteria.

Extension Compare the discrimination of Holocaust victims to Japanese in America during WWII (See resources)

Compare 9/11 to Pearl Harbor and responses to Muslim Americans today versus Japanese during WWII (See resources)

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Background

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, would live in infamy. The attack launched the United States fully into the two theaters of the world war. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States had been involved in the European war only by supplying England and other antifascist countries of Europe with the munitions of war.

The attack on Pearl Harbor also launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066, which had the effect of relocating all persons of Japanese ancestry, both citizens and aliens, inland, outside of the Pacific military zone. The objectives of the order were to prevent espionage and to protect persons of Japanese descent from harm at the hands of Americans who had strong anti-Japanese attitudes.

In Washington and Oregon, the eastern boundary of the military zone was an imaginary line along the rim of the Cascade Mountains; this line continued down the spine of California from north to south. From that line to the Pacific coast, the military restricted zones in those three states were defined.

Roosevelt's order affected 117,000 people of Japanese descent, two-thirds of whom were native-born citizens of the United States. The Issei were the first generation of Japanese in this country; the Nisei were the second generation, numbering 70,000 American citizens at the time of internment. Within weeks, all persons of Japanese ancestry--whether citizens or enemy aliens, young or old, rich or poor--were ordered to assembly centers near their homes. Soon they were sent to permanent relocation centers outside the restricted military zones.

For example, persons of Japanese ancestry in western Washington State were removed to the assembly center at the Puyallup Fairgrounds near Tacoma. From Puyallup to Pomona, internees found that a cowshed at a fairgrounds or a horse stall at a racetrack was home for several months before they were transported to a permanent wartime residence. Relocation centers were situated many miles inland, often in remote and desolate locales. Sites included Tule Lake, California; Minidoka, Idaho; Manzanar, California; Topaz, Utah; Jerome, Arkansas; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; Poston, Arizona; Granada, Colorado; and Rohwer, Arkansas.

As four or five families with their sparse collections of clothing and possessions squeezed into and shared tar-papered barracks, life took on some familiar routines of socializing and school. However, eating in common facilities and having limited opportunities for work interrupted other social and cultural patterns. Persons who became troublesome were sent to a special camp at Tule Lake, California, where dissidents were housed.

In 1943 and 1944 the government assembled a combat unit of Japanese Americans for the European theater. It became the 442d Regimental Combat Team and gained fame as the most highly decorated of World War II. Their military record bespoke their patriotism.

As the war drew to a close, the relocation centers were slowly evacuated. While some persons of Japanese ancestry returned to their home towns, others sought new surroundings. For example, the Japanese American community of Tacoma, Washington, had been sent to three different centers;

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only 30 percent returned to Tacoma after the war. Japanese Americans from Fresno had gone to Manzanar; 80 percent returned to their hometown.

The internment of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II sparked constitutional and political debate. In the 1940s, two men and one woman--Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and Endo--challenged the constitutionality of the relocation and curfew orders. While the men received negative judgments from the court, in the 1944 case ExParte Mitsuye Endo, the Supreme Court ruled that, "Mitsuye Endo is entitled to an unconditional release by the War Relocation Authority." Some people refer to the relocation centers as concentration camps; others view internment as an unfortunate episode, but a military necessity. During the Reagan-Bush years Congress moved toward the passage of Public Law 100-383 in 1988 which acknowledged the injustice of the internment, apologized for it, and provided a $20,000 cash payment to each person who was interned.

One of the most stunning ironies in this episode of American civil liberties was articulated by an internee who, when told that the Japanese were put in those camps for their own protection, countered "If we were put there for our protection, why were the guns at the guard towers pointed inward, instead of outward?"

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation/

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SAC: Structured Academic Controversy

YES: Japanese should have had their rights restricted after Pearl Harbor.NO: Japanese should not have had their rights restricted after Pearl Harbor.

Document 1: Executive Order 9066 (1942)

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Document 2: Posting of Exclusion Order at First and Front Streets in San Francisco, California, directing removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from the first section in San Francisco to be affected by the evacuation (1942).

Document 3: Thank You Note in "Little Tokyo" in Los Angeles, California. Mr. and Mrs. K. Tseri have closed their drugstore in preparation for the forthcoming evacuation from their home and business (1942).

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Document 4: Private Mitchie M. Miyamoto, U.S. Army. WWII.

Document 3: Los Angeles, California. The evacuation of the Japanese-Americans from West Coast areas under U.S. Army war emergency order. Japanese-Americans waiting for a train to take them and their parents to Owens Valley. (1942)

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Document 4: Korematsu v. U.S. Supreme Court, (1944)

The petitioner, an American citizen of Japanese descent, was convicted in a federal district court for remaining in San Leandro, California, a “Military Area,” contrary to Civilian Exclusion Order No. 34 of the Commanding General of the Western Command, U.S. Army, which directed that after May 9, 1942, all persons of Japanese ancestry should be excluded from that area

It is said that we are dealing here with the case of imprisonment of a citizen in a concentration camp solely because of his ancestry, without evidence or inquiry concerning his loyalty and good disposition towards the United States. Our task would be simple, our duty clear, were this a case involving the imprisonment of a loyal citizen in a concentration camp because of racial prejudice. Regardless of the true nature of the assembly and relocation centers-and we deem it unjustifiable to call them concentration camps with all the ugly connotations that term implies-we are dealing specifically with nothing but an exclusion order. To cast this case into outlines of racial prejudice, without reference to the real military dangers which were presented, merely confuses the issue. Korematsu was not excluded from the Military Area because of hostility to him or his race. He was excluded because we are at war with the Japanese Empire, because the properly constituted military authorities feared an invasion of our West Coast and felt constrained to take proper security measures, because they decided that the military urgency of the situation demanded that all citizens of Japanese ancestry be segregated from the West Coast temporarily, and finally, because Congress, reposing its confidence in this time of war in our military leaders-as inevitably it must-determined that they should have the power to do just this. There was evidence of disloyalty on the part of some, the military authorities considered that the need for action was great, and time was short. We cannot-by availing ourselves of the calm perspective of hindsight-now say that at that time these actions were unjustified.

Document 5: Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, U.S. Senate (1988).

(2) the internment of individuals of Japanese ancestry was carried out without any documented acts of espionage or sabotage, or other acts of disloyalty by any citizens or permanent resident aliens of Japanese ancestry on the west coast;

(3) there was no military or security reason for the internment;

(4) the internment of the individuals of Japanese ancestry was caused by racial prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership;

(5) the excluded individuals of Japanese ancestry suffered enormous damages and losses, both material and intangible, and there were incalculable losses in education and job training, all of which resulted in significant human suffering;

(6) the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of those individuals of Japanese ancestry interned were fundamentally violated by that evacuation and internment.

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Performance Assessment Rubric

5 3 1Thesis Clearly identifies position on

the issue.Position is somewhat clear. Position is unclear.

Supporting Evidence Evidence is used accurately, with suffient detail and explanation to prove their position.

Position is somewhat proven due to inaccuracies, poor explanation, and or lack of detail.

Supporting evidence is lacking.

Organization Ideas are separated into different paragraphs that make reasonable sense.

Some ideas are not properly structured and paragraphs lack focus.

Structure/Paragraphs are lacking.

Clarity and Fluency Student has clear explanations and ideas are presented logically and without confusion.

Student has some areas of contradictory information and or lacks logical progression of ideas.

Students lack clarity and confusion is found throughout.

Total: ____ X 5 = _____

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