Japanese Americans' Internment Experience

This activity would be best utilized during a unit on World War II so that students will have background knowledge about the causes for the United States' entry into World War II.

1. Ask student volunteers to share what they know about the country of Japan's involvement in World War II. 

This video, Japanese-American Internment During WWII from the History Channel, provides a brief background and overview of the historical context of the internment of Japanese Americans. You may wish to show this video first to help students activate their prior knowledge and understand how the internment of Japanese Americans correlates to other events of WWII. 

2. Have students draw a Venn diagram on a sheet of notebook paper (two overlapping circles). Have students label the left side of the diagram as "U.S. Government Portrayal" and the right side "Japanese American Experience". Tell students they are going to watch two video clips, one is a propaganda video that was created by the United States government to explain to citizens the internment of Japanese Americans; the other is a video of Japanese American actor George Takei's experience as a young boy in a Japanese internment camp. Direct students to write down at least four facts from each video in the corresponding circle. Tell students they should look for how the experience of living in these camps was portrayed or discussed in each video.

3. Show the digital tool, WWII Japanese American Internment Propaganda Film (9:42 minutes), and allow students to write down four facts in the graphic organizer. Next, show the other video clip, "George Takei's Life in an Internment Camp"  (2:48 minutes) and remind students to write down four facts from this video clip. 

Note: The propaganda video portrays the internment camps as positive places, where the Japanese American families were served healthy, nourishing food and lived in nice homes. It is portrayed that the Japanese Americans willingly chose to go to the internment camps. George Takei describes being terrified as U.S. soldiers stormed into his family's home to remove them to the internment camp. He also describes living in a horse stable in the camp surrounded by a high barbed wire fence.

4. Tell students they will now meet with a partner to complete the middle section of their graphic organizer. The students will need to discuss the facts they already wrote down during the viewing, and develop at least two things that both videos had in common, as far as the portrayal of the Japanese Americans' experience in the internment camps.

 5. You may choose to lead a whole class discussion on each students' responses on the graphic organizer.