Lesson Plan # ___3___
TAH Grant-Spring Semester 2012
Lesson Plan Title: Japanese Internment Lesson Plan
Class periods projected to spend on plan: two
Plan focus: Check on of the following:
Primary sources
technology
Reading like a Historian model
Technology to be used: Video from You Tube, Power point, Internet
Plan objective: To determine how and why were Japanese and Japanese-Americans interned during
World War II.
CLE(s): (Please write out verbiage as well as number and letters of specific CLE)
3b. Knowledge of continuity and change in the history of the world.
M. Causes, comparison and results of major twentieth century wars
Analyze all significant wars of the twentieth centuries including consequences
Outline of lesson:(include all activities, teacher input, etc.)
Central Historical Question: Why were Japanese and Japanese Americans interned during World War II?
Materials:
Copies of Japanese Internment Timeline
Copies of Japanese Internment Documents
Government newsreel: http://www.archive.org/details/Japanese1943
Plan of Instruction:
1.
Focus Activity: Pass out Japanese Internment Timeline and review the major events.
2.
Begin Inquiry Round One:
Students watch government film on internment, and complete corresponding section of the graphic
organizer. Can also access it from youtube(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hG8gmnmNM)
Students fill in the Graphic Organizer for Government Newsreel
3.
Share Hypothesis A. Discussion:
What were some of the reasons for internment offered in the newsreel?
How does the newsreel portray internment? Is it positive or negative?
Who do you think the audience was for this newsreel?
4.
Begin Inquiry Round Two:
Hand out the Crisis and the Munson Report documents.
In pairs, students read documents and complete corresponding section of the Graphic Organizer.
5.
Share Hypothesis B. Discussion:
Has anyone’s hypothesis changed? Why or why not?
Do you find these documents more or less trustworthy than the government newsreel? Why or why
not?
Why is the date of the Munson report important?
6.
Begin Inquiry Round Three:
Hand out documents “Personal Justice Denied” and In Defense of Internment
In pairs, students read documents and complete corresponding section of the Graphic Organizer.
7.
Share final hypothesis.
Discussion:
Which of these documents do you think has a better explanation of Japanese Internment? Why?
Why were Japanese Americans interned during World War II? Ask Students to point to evidence
In the documents to support their answers.
Documents that will be used in the lesson are below
Assessment for lesson:
I will grade the Graphic organizers that the students fill out for their assessment on this lesson. Also
student participation points will be given.
The Munson Report
In 1941 president Roosevelt ordered the state department to investigate the loyalty of Japanese
Americans. Special Representative of the State Department Curtis B. Munson carried out the
investigation in October and Novemberof 1941 and presented what came to be known as the “Munson
report” to the president on November 7. 1941. The following is an excerpt from the 25-page report:
"The story was all the same. There is no Japanese `problem' on the Coast. There will be no armed
uprising of Japanese. There will undoubtedly be some sabotage financed by Japan and executed largely
by imported agents... In each Naval District there are about 250 to 300 suspects under surveillance. It is
easy to get on the suspect list, merely a speech in favor of Japan at some banquet being sufficient to
land one there. The Intelligence Services are generous with the title of suspect and are taking no
chances. Privately, they believe that only 50 or 60 in each district can be classed as really dangerous. The
Japanese are hampered as saboteurs because of their easily recognized physical appearance. It will be
hard for them to get near anything to blow up if it is guarded. There is far more danger from
Communists and people of the Bridges type on the Coast than there is from Japanese. The Japanese
here is almost exclusively a farmer, a fisherman or a small businessman. He has no entree to plants or
intricate machinery."
Source: The Munson Report, delivered to President Roosevelt by Special Representative of the State
Department Curtis B. Munson, November 7, 1941
Chronology of the Japanese American Internment
1941
December 7 Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese. Presidential Proclamation No. 2525 gives
blanket authority to Attorney General for a sweep of suspects
December 8 Treasury Department seizes all Japanese banks and business
December 9 Many Japanese language schools closed.
December 11 FBI warns against possession of cameras or guns by suspected "enemy" aliens
December 27 Attorney General orders all suspected "enemy "aliens in West to surrender short wave
radios and cameras
December 30 California revokes liquor license held by non-citizen Japanese.
1942
January 1 Attorney General freezes travel by all suspected "enemy " aliens, orders surrender of
weapons.
January 14 President Roosevelt orders re-registration of suspected "enemy" aliens in West.
January 27 Los Angeles City and County discharges all Japanese on civil service lists.
January 29 US Attorney General Francis Biddle issued the first of a series of orders establishing limited
strategic areas along the Pacific Coast and requiring the removal of all suspected "enemy" aliens from
these areas.
February 14 Lt. General J. DeWitt, Commanding General of the Western Defense Command, sends a
memorandum to the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson recommending the removal of "Japanese and
other subversive persons" from the West Coast area.
February 19 President Roosevelt signed Executive Order No. 9066, authorizing Secretary of War, or any
military commander designated by Secretary to establish 'military areas' and exclude therefrom 'any or
all persons'.
February 20 Secretary Stimson designated General DeWitt as military commander empowered to carry
out an evacuation within his command under the terms of the Executive Order 9066.
March 2 General DeWitt issues Proclamation No. I, designating the Western half of the three Pacific
Coast states and the southern third of Arizona as military areas and stipulating that all persons of
Japanese descent would eventually be reoved.
March 21 President Roosevelt signed Public Law 503 (77th Congress) making it a federal offense to
violate any order issued by a designated military commander under authority of Executive Order No.
9066.
March 24 Curfew for all aliens and Japanese proclaimed for military area 1 and other strategic areas in
west effective March 27. WCCA acquires sites for temporary detention centers in California at Merced,
Tulare, Marysville, and Fresno.
March 27 General DeWitt issued Proclamation No.4 (effective March 29) forbidding further voluntary
migration of Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast military areas.
April 3 First compulsory incarceration of Los Angeles Japanese to Santa Anita temporary detention
center.
June 2 General DeWitt issued Public Proclamation No.6 forbidding further voluntary migration of people
of Japanese descent from the eastern half of California and simultaneously announce that all such
people would eventually be removed from this area directly to Internment camps.
July 13 Mitsuye Endo petitions for a writ of habeas corpus stating that she was loyal and law abiding U.
S. citizen, that no charge had been made against her, that she was being unlawfully detained, and she
was confined in a internment camp under armed guard and held there against her will.
August 7 Western Defense Commander announced the completion of removal of more than 120,000
Japanese Americans from their homes.
1943
January 23 Secretary of War Henry Stimson announced plans to form an all-Japanese American Combat
team to be made up of volunteers from both the mainland and Hawaii.
February 8 Registration (loyalty questionnaire) of all persons over 17 years of age for Army recruitment,
segregation and relocation begins at most of the internment camps.
May 6 Ms Eleanor Roosevelt spent a day at the Gila River Internment camp.
June 21 Hirabayashi v U.S. and Yasui v U.S : The Supreme Court rules that a curfew may be imposed
against one group of Americans citizens based solely on ancestry and that Congress in enacting Public
law 77-503 authorized the implementation of Executive Order 9066 and provided criminal penalties for
violation of orders of the Military Commander.
1944
May The all-Japanese American 442 Regimental Combat Team (RCT) sent to the Italian front.
December 17 The War Department announced the revocation (effective on January 2, 1945) of the West
Coast mass exclusion orders which had been in effect against people of Japanese descent since the
spring of 1942
December 18 The WRA announced that all internment camps would be closed before the end of 1945
and the entire WRA program would be liquidated on June 30, 1946.
December 18 Korematsu v U.S.: the U.S. Supreme Court rules that one group of citizens may be singled
out and expelled from their homes and imprisoned for several years without trial, based solely on their
ancestry.
December 18 In ex parte Endo, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that WRA has no authority to detain a
"concededly loyal" American citizen.
1945
April 29 442--All Japanese American Regiment frees prisoners at Dachau Concentration Camps.
August 15 V-J Day
September Western Defense Command issues Public Proclamation No. 24 revoking all individual
exclusion orders and all further military restrictions against persons of Japanese descent.
Oct 15- Dec 15 All WRA Internment camps are closed except for Tule Lake Center
1946
March 20 Tule Lake Segregation Center closed
October 30 Crystal City Detention Center, Texas operated by the Justice Department releases last
Japanese (North. Central and South ) Americans. The closing of the Japanese American Internment
Program.
1948
July 2 Evacuation Claims Act passed, giving internees until January 3.1950 to file claims against the
government for damages to or loss of real or personal property consequence of the evacuation. Total of
$31 million paid by the government for property lost by internees-- equaling less than 10 cents per
dollar lost.
1976
February 19 President Gerald Ford formally rescinds Executive Order No. 9066.
1983
June 23 Report of the Commission of Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), entitled
Personal Justice Denied, concludes that exclusion, expulsion and incarceration were not justified by
military necessity, and the decisions to do so were based on race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of
political leadership.
October 4 In response to a petition for a writ of error coram nobis by Fred Korematsu, the Federal
District Court of San Francisco reverses his 1942 conviction and rules that the internment was not
justified.
1989
November 2 President George Bush signed Public law 101-162 which guarantees fund for reparation
payments to the WW II internment survivors beginning in October of 1990. For the Japanese American
community. it marks a victorious end to a long struggle for justice. For the nation, the President
signature reaffirms the country's commitment to equal justice under the law.
Time Line source:
http://www.momomedia.com/CLPEF/chrono.html
CLPEF Education Network
The Crisis
Along the eastern coast of the United States, where the numbers of
Americans of Japanese ancestry is comparatively small, no concentration camps have been established.
From a military point of view, the only danger on this coast is from Germany and Italy…But
the American government has not taken any such high-handed action
against Germans and Italians – and their American-born descendants
– on the East Coast, as has been taken against Japanese and their
American-born descendents on the West Coast. Germans and
Italians are “white.” Color seems to be the only possible reason why thousands of
American citizens of Japanese ancestry are in concentration camps.
Anyway, there are no Italian-American, or German-American citizens
in such camps.
Source: Harry Paxton Howard, “Americans in Concentration Camps,” The Crisis,
September, 1942. Founded in 1910, The Crisis is one of the oldest black
periodicals in America. The publication is dedicated to promoting civil rights. The
excerpt above is from an editorial that appeared soon after the establishment of
internment camps.
“Personal Justice Denied”
The Commission held 20 days of hearings in cities across the
country, particularly on the West Coast, hearing testimony from more
than 750 witnesses: evacuees, former government officials, public
figures, interested citizens, and historians and other professionals
who have studied the subjects of Commission inquiry. An extensive
effort was made to locate and to review the records of government
action and to analyze other sources of information including
contemporary writings, personal accounts and historical analyses…
. . .Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and
the decisions which followed from it—detention, ending detention and
ending exclusion—were not driven by analysis of military conditions.
The broad historical causes which shaped these decisions were race
prejudice, war hysteria and a failure of political leadership.
Widespread ignorance of Japanese Americans contributed to a policy
conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger
at Japan. A grave injustice was done to American citizens and
resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or
any…evidence against them, were excluded, removed and detained
by the United States during World War II.
Source: In 1980, Congress established the Commission on Wartime Relocation
and Internment of Civilians to investigate the detention program and the
constitutionality of Executive Order 9066. The Commission released its report
“Personal Justice Denied: The Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation
and Internment of Civilians” on February 24, 1983. The passage above is an excerpt from this report.
In Defense of Internment
In a time of war, the survival of the nation comes first. Civil liberties are not sacrosanct….. No one was
exempt from the hardships of World War II, which demanded a wide range of civil rights sacrifices on
the part of citizen and non-citizen, majority and minority alike. Ethnic Japanese forced to leave the West
Coast of the United and relocate outside of prescribed military zones after Pearl Harbor attack endured
a heavy burden, but by they were not the ones who suffered and sacrificed. Enemy aliens from all Axis
nations-not just Japan-were subjected to curfews, registration, censorship, and exclusion from sensitive
areas. Thousands of foreign nationals from Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and elsewhere
were deemed dangerous, interned, and eventually deported.
Source: Michelle Malkin, excerpt from the book written in 2004. In Defense of Internment: The Case
for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror defending the U.S. government's
internment of 112,000 Japanese Americans in prison camps during World War II, and arguing that the
same procedures could be used on Arab- and Muslim-Americans today.