Week Six - Monday, February 10th, to Friday, February 14th Monday - War in the Pacific mapping activity
Tuesday - Pearl Harbor
Wednesday - Pearl Harbor
Thursday - Japanese Internment Camps Working in small groups, students should read one or more of these New York Times articles from the time period. Their goal? To figure out what they can find in 1940s news coverage that explains why the American government forced people from their homes into internment camps simply because of their ethnicity, and why the rest of the country let it happen.
Students should look for the following: • explicit or implied reasons given within the articles to justify the roundups • clues within the writing itself (such as the words used to describe Japanese-Americans, language that reveals bias or an outdated perspective, or sensationalism) that provide insight about contemporary attitudes • the type of sources for the article (for example, does the article rely exclusively on government sources? Does it include any Japanese-American voices?)
Students can also compare reporting in The Times with accounts and editorials in newspapers on the West Coast, where most Japanese-Americans lived and anti-Japanese hysteria was particularly acute. Is there a noticeable difference in tone? West Coast newspapers: Articles in The San Francisco News (scroll down to find dozens of articles from the spring of 1942)
Week One - Monday, January 6th, to Friday, January 10th Monday - Welcome Back! Library of Congress Tuesday - The Roaring 20's: Prohibition Wednesday - The Roaring 20's: Harlem Renaissance Thursday - The Roaring 20's: Harlem Renaissance Con't Friday - The Roaring 20's: Fashion and Women of the 1920's