TIPS TEACHER PROJECT PLAN

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WEBQUEST

An English/Social Studies Interdisciplinary Project on

Japanese-American Internment and the Korematsu Case

Webquest Format developed by: Adrian Viscovich and Mike DeStefano

Herbert H. Lehman H.S., Bronx, NY

Introduction and Background

During World War II, right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066 which ordered that all persons of Japanese ancestry living on the West coast be relocated to 8 internment camps. Without a trial, one hundred and twenty thousand Japanese-Americans were forced to leave their homes and move to these isolated areas for almost two and a half years.

Three Japanese-Americans, Hirabayashi, Korematsu, and Endo, took their cases to the Supreme Court. In each case the defendants claimed that their due process rights, guaranteed by the Constitution, were violated.

The Task

(ENGLISH) You will read a memoire, Farewell to Manzanar, and use the Internet to search sites about the Japanese-American experience in internment camps during World War II. You will have an opportunity to find out, from the book and first-hand accounts from the websites, what life was like for the men, women, and children who were imprisoned and write a descriptive essay of life in a camp from the view point of a person who was interred.(ENGLISH: NYS Standard #2 - "(students will) develop an understanding of the diverse social, historical, and cultural dimensions the text …represents")

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You will locate websites which contain poetry written by adults and children while they were held in the internment camps. Choose one poem you like and analyze it, and then write an original poem from the perspective of a person living the internment experience. ( ENGLISH: NYS Standard #3 – "students will analyze experiences, ideas, information, and issues presented by others"

You will use a History text and specific websites to analyze the following question from a historical perspective and write an essay explaining the circumstances which led to Executive Order 9066:

Why did the United States government pass what was clearly a racially biased decision to imprison people for no other reason than the fact that they were of Japanese ancestry? (SOCIAL STUDIES: NYS Standard#1 "students will …demonstrate their understanding of major ideas, eras, themes, developments, and turning points in the history of the United States")

You will use the CompuLEGAL process to analyze the following question from a legal perspective and write a summary of the final decision, the dissenting opinion, and your opinion of which was right and why :

Did the Supreme Court ruling violate Korematsu’s due process rights guaranteed by the Constitution? (SOCIAL STUDIES: NYS Standard#5 "Students will demonstrate their understanding of…the United States Constitution" and the new NYS Regents requirement to analyze public documents and be able to apply what they’ve learned in a DBQ)

RESOURCES:

You may use any of the following search engines to locate websites on this topic: Yahoo, Excite, AltaVista, or any other search engine you prefer:

Click on Yahoo and type Japanese Internment Camps in the search box

You must use this WEBQUEST The Korematsu Case CompuLEGAL site to study the Korematsu case and the Supreme Court Decision

You must use the Korematsue Webquest Resources - Handout 4C for the Statements of the Witnesses

You will also find additional links to World War II here to help you in your understanding about the time period in which the internment happened.

A poetry site is Voices From the Gaps which contains poetry by Mitsuye Yamada, who at the age of 9, was relocated in 1942 with her family to an internment camp.

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The PROCESS:

In English class you will read Farewwll to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston. This is a memoir of the author’s experiences as a young child in the Manzanar camp and her feelings about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

In English class, using the TIPS Korematsu WEBQuest, you will read the eyewitness accounts provided and choose two of the testimonies to summarize.

In Social Studies class you will read the parts of the Constitution and focus on specific lines which guarantee the right of due process.

In Social Studies class, you will use the TIPS website to analyze the Supreme Court case of Korematsu v US. You will read the Final Decision of the six Supreme Court Judges in the Korematsu case and the Dissenting Opinion of three judges. In English class, the students will summarize the Final Decision, the Dissenting Decision, and formulate their Opinion about the ruling in the case and its impact on American history.

In Social Studies, you will use several search engines to identify and open two Websites. You will evaluate the historic validity of the site, describe what you found interesting about the site, and explain what could have been presented in a more interesting way.

In English class, you will search the web for sites which contain poetry written by people in the Japanese Internment camps. You will choose a poem which moves you and analyze it in a short essay.

In English class, you will write an original poem from the perspective or point of view of a person who was detained in one of the eight Japanese-American internment camps during World War II.

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EVALUATION:

You will submit a final project about Japanese-American Internment which will demonstrate your understanding of the issues and events related to Japanese-American Internment and which will include:

an essay comparing two works of literature, Farewell to Manzanar and the poem "Legal Alien" by Pat Mora

a report on the Supreme Court case of Korematsu researched on the TIPS sites - including a summary of two eyewitness accounts and a summary of the Final Decision, the Dissenting Opinion, and your opinion of which was right and why

a Webquest journal containing the specific www addresses and an analysis of two Websites you opened

pictures of life in the internment camps found on the Internet

a bibliography which includes citation of all Websites

a poem written by one of the internees and your analysis of the poem

an original poem written by you from the point of view of a person who went through the internment experience

Projects will be in the form of a book, with a cover made up of a collage of photographs from U.S. archives.

CONCLUSION:

How could this have happened in the United States? is a question that we ask ourselves.

It is important that you study and understand what happened to the Japanese-Americans during World War II because it is only in understanding the mistakes made in history that we can work to make sure that they are never repeated again.

President George Bush and the United States government made a formal apology to the Japanese-Americans in 1989. For extra credit, read the apology letter he sent to Japanese-Americans who were interred, and write an apology letter of your own to these people.