Japanese-American Internment Camps

{A lesson from the Library of Congress}


The above picture is a Japanese-American child being transferred from a train to a bus with his parents to Owens Valley.


Questions to Consider:
Describe what you see. What did you notice first? Why do you think this image was made? Who do you think the audience was for this picture? What do you wonder about?

For the three photographs below, brainstorm the connection you see between them. Write a one sentence explanation of the connection between them.

Dispatch announcing the bombing of Pearl Harbor




FDR signing the Declaration of War




Prelude to the Japanese Exodus, Dorothea Lange, Women Come to the Front, Library of Congress on-line exhibit


For the photo below, consider the below questions:



Los Angeles, California. Japanese-American evacuation from West Coast areas under U.S. Army war emergency order. Photographers at the train taking Japanese-Americans to Owens Valley

Consider:
What can you learn from examining this image? What's missing from this image? What do you notice first? What people are shown and how are they arranged? Why do you think it was made?

At the link below, you can listen to FDR's speech (which, ironically, yesterday was the anniversary of Pearl Harbor). I am giving you the text of the speech as well. As you read through FDR's speech, you should highlight phrases that might explain why the US government chose to imprison Japanese-Americans.
http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy/

The links below contain information about two different Japanese-American soldiers. You can access their documents, memoirs, and full length interviews with them. You will have to click the full length and not the clips because the clips don't seem to work. However, if there is a clip you are particularly interested in, you can always skip to the times listed for that clip and watch that specific part. As you listen to the selected interviews, you should note phrases that explain what internment was really like from the perspective of a former camp internee.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.02153/

http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.10680/

Last of all, take some time to peruse Ansel Adams's photo collection of Internment at Manzanar.
http://www.loc.gov/collections/ansel-adams-manzanar/

The last link is jarring, shocking, and chilling, having just spent a semester on the Holocaust and the German propaganda machine. I think we will watch it together, but I wanted you to have the link here in case time doesn't permit.

US Government Propaganda Film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OiPldKsM5w&safe=active