Japanese Internment Camps & the Atomic Bomb

Japanese Internment Camps:

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which permitted the military to circumvent the constitutional safeguards of American citizens in the name of national defense.

The order set into motion the exclusion from certain areas, and the evacuation and mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast, most of whom were U.S. citizens or legal permanent resident aliens.

These Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, were incarcerated for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis, in bleak, remote camps surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.

 They were forced to evacuate their homes and leave their jobs; in some cases family members were separated and put into different camps. President Roosevelt himself called the 10 facilities "concentration camps."

 Some Japanese Americans died in the camps due to inadequate medical care and the emotional stresses they encountered. Several were killed by military guards posted for allegedly resisting orders.

 At the time, Executive Order 9066 was justified as a "military necessity" to protect against domestic espionage and sabotage. However, it was later documented that "our government had in its possession proof that not one Japanese American, citizen or not, had engaged in espionage, not one had committed any act of sabotage." (Michi Weglyn, 1976).

Rather, the causes for this unprecedented action in American history, according to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, "were motivated largely by racial prejudice, wartime hysteria, and a failure of political leadership."

Almost 50 years later, through the efforts of leaders and advocates of the Japanese American community, Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. Popularly known as the Japanese American Redress Bill, this act acknowledged that "a grave injustice was done" and mandated Congress to pay each victim of internment $20,000 in reparations.

The reparations were sent with a signed apology from the President of the United States on behalf of the American people. The period for reparations ended in August of 1998.

Despite this redress, the mental and physical health impacts of the trauma of the internment experience continue to affect tens of thousands of Japanese Americans. Health studies have shown a 2 times greater incidence of heart disease and premature death among former internees, compared to noninterned Japanese Americans. 

 The following quotations are from Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians :

"In the detention centers, families lived in substandard housing, had inadequate nutrition and health care, and had their livelihoods destroyed: many continued to suffer psychologically long after their release" 

"At Gila, there were 7,700 people crowded into space designed for 5,000. They were housed in messhalls, recreation halls, and even latrines. As many as 25 persons lived in a space intended for four."

  

"In desert camps, the evacuees met severe extremes of temperature. In winter it reached 35 degrees below zero, and summer brought temperatures as high as 115 degrees. Rattlesnakes and desert wildlife added danger to discomfort."

"When we first arrived at Minidonka, everyone was forced to use outhouses since the sewer system had not been built. For about a year, the residents had to brave the cold and the stench of these accomodations."

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1.  DIRECTIONS:  After reading the above information and quotations about Japanese Interment Camps and looking at the pictures from PBS, write a 10-line response (5-lines if typed) which addresses the following questions:

• Which is more important: safety or freedom?
• Can certain measures, such as internment camps, wiretapping, searching your house without a warrant, being denied a lawyer, and torture be justified during a time of war?  Explain which measures you find justifiable and which are not and why you think so.
• How would you feel as an American citizen if you were sent to the types of internment camps that so many Japanese Americans were sent to?  What would be the hardest part for you?  What would you say to the President and Congress?

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The Atomic Bomb:

DIRECTIONS:

2.  Visit the timeline of the Race to Build the Atomic Bomb and the timeline of Atomic Bomb: Decision, and record what you think are the FIVE most important events on the timeline and a brief explanation of each. (NOTE:  You must include at least ONE event from each of the two timelines.)

3.  Write a 5 sentence response to whether or not the U.S. should have dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II.  You should consider the images, the timeline, and the following pieces of information in your response:

• "With the end of the European war, the Allies focused their efforts on Japan. Japan still fought fanatically, despite being badly hurt by bombing and blockade."  (Long)
• "Some historians argue that millions of Japanese and American troops would have died in [another] invasion [of Japan]." (Moss)
• "The U.S. chose military methods of ending the war rather than diplomatic methods. The desire for revenge helped make military methods more attractive." (Long)
• "Experts say Japanese soldiers killed many Asians unnecessarily.  Soldiers also sexually attacked many Asian women or used others as sex slaves."  (Moss)
• "More than one hundred thousand people would be killed instantly. Many others would suffer horribly. The effects of the bomb included severe radiation, which caused many people to develop cancer." (Dowling)
• "Soon after the war, the Soviet Union (now Russia) learned the secrets of nuclear weapons. Today, in addition to the United States and Russia, France, Great Britain, China and Israel have discovered the technology of nuclear weapons, and many other nations, including India, South Africa, Iraq, Iran and North Korea possibly have nuclear technology." (Dowling)
• "Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev described our planet after a full nuclear war as a place where 'the living would envy the dead.'"  (Dowling)

Women & African Americans During WWII

Women During the War:  

1.  Analyze the above war posters aimed at women, then answer the following questions: 

• Which poster did you find most appealing?  Why?
• What messages do the posters seem to send to women at this time?
• Did any of the posters seem sexist to you?  Why or why not?
• What new opportunities were created for women during WWII?

2.  Read about Women Aviators in World War II: "Fly Girls", then answer the following questions: 

• What were your reactions to finding out that women worked as pilots during World War II? 
• Why do you think the WASPs were not granted official military status?  
• What is your opinion of the WASP program?

From 1941 to 1944, the number of working women in America increased from 14.6 million to 19.4 million. Before World War II, women held positions as secretaries; domestic servants; teachers; and clothing or textile workers. As men went to war, women moved into higher-paying positions in the automotive and steel industries. Others worked for aircraft and ship builders. About 350,000 women served in the U.S. military.¹

Many women signed on to become pilots for the U.S. Army Air Force (AAF). Jacqueline Cochran, one of America's leading aviators, directed the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), which merged with Nancy Love's Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) to become the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).

The vigorous training program demanded 200 hours of flight instruction and 400 hours of ground school. More than 25,000 women applied for the program. Only 1,830 were accepted; 1,074 graduated and became pilots. The WASP program selected the best and brightest women, and trained them to become aviation leaders.

In 1941, aircraft production more than doubled, and the AAF needed pilots to ferry planes from factories to Air Force bases around the world. They needed pilots to tow targets and test new aircraft. The WASPs were just the pilots for the job.

While the program ceased operation on December 20, 1944, it opened up a whole new world of opportunities for women in aviation. The WASPs made important contributions to World War II and enhanced careers for women aviators.

¹ Cayton, Andrew, et al, America: Pathways to the Present (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2005), 827, 860-61.

African-Americans During the War:

3. Watch the PBS video "African American Troop Training." Copy down FIVE FACTS as you watch, AND write a brief (2-3 sentences) reaction/opinion of the video.

4.  Read General Benjamin O. Davis’s memo to the War Department (below), and answer the following questions. Some answers are found within the text; other answers require you to analyze the text and use your knowledge of the time period. If you use quotations, be sure to put quotation marks around them.

• What is General Davis’s impression of the African American (“colored”) officers and soldiers in the north and northeast versus the African American officers and soldiers in the southeast?  To what does the general ascribe the differences?
• What evidence is there that African American troops want to enter combat against the enemy?
• What are some overall concerns the general has regarding African American troops, all across the United States?
• What solutions does the general suggest for increasing the morale and safety of African American troops?
• What does he suggest for himself?
• What do you think was the result of the general’s memo? Was it effective? How can you find out?
• Do African Americans and other minorities in positions of power have a responsibility to campaign for minority rights, as the general did in his memo? Why or why not?

War Department

Office of the Inspector General
Washington
9 November 1943

MEMORANDUM FOR GENERAL PETERSON.

1. During the last two months I have, with Mr. Gibson, the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of War, visited the colored troops at the following stations: Fort Devens, Massachusetts; the New York Port of Embarkation (New York City, Brooklyn, Camp Shanks and Mitchel Field, New York; Camp Kilmer and Fort Dix, New Jersey), Selfridge Field and Oscoda, Michigan. During 1941, 1942, and the early part of this year, my visits were made to the stations located in the southeastern states, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Arizona, and Illinois.

2. I have reviewed inspection reports and investigations made by other inspectors general from this office and the field. I was deeply impressed with the high morale and attitudes of the colored officers and soldiers stationed in the states visited in the past two months. They were so different from those of the colored officers and soldiers at the stations located in the Southern states. While there has been an improvement in general conditions, there is still great dissatisfaction and discouragement on the part of the colored people and the soldiers. They feel that, no matter how much they strive to meet War Department requirements, there is no change in the attitude of the War Department. The colored officers and soldiers feel that they are denied the protection and rewards that ordinarily result from good behavior and proper performance of duty.

3. Colored combat units, upon completion of training, have not been sent to theaters of operations. The enlisted personnel of two battalions of Field Artillery has been recently transferred to service units. The War Department, through Assistant Secretary McCloy, has stated that this was directed by military necessity. Somebody in the Department permitted this situation to develop. The personnel transferred from these Field Artillery units is reduced in morale. The commissioned and enlisted personnel left with the Field Artillery units can only look forward to another period of from 14 to 16 months of preparation. They can hardly hold out much hope for an opportunity for combat.

4. The 93rd Division has about completed the prescribed training. The disposition of this Division in the near future will have a great effect on the morale of the colored people. In the activation of new colored units, few commanding officers, if any, have been selected from the colored field officers. Some of those colored field officers have completed the courses at the service schools and have been serving in their present grades for long periods.

5. The press news items and reports of investigations show that there has been little change in the attitudes of civilian communities in Southern states. The colored man in uniform receives nothing but hostility from community officials. The attitude is still that of the Governors of six Southern states reported by General Cooke as a result of his inspections, 18 May to 20 June 1942. The colored man in uniform is expected by the War Department to develop a high morale in a community that offers him nothing but humiliation and mistreatment. Military training does not develop a spirit of cheerful acceptance of Jim-Crow laws and customs. The War Department has failed to secure for the colored soldier protection against violence on the part of civilian police and to secure justice in the courts in communities near-by to Southern stations. In the areas recently inspected, the colored soldier feels that he can secure justice in the civil courts. He has not been set upon by the civilian police. He has not been denied the privilege of occupying empty seats in public busses, street cars, etc. Taxicabs do serve him. This is not so in Southern communities.

6. On the training fields the development of morale does not take into consideration Jim-Crow laws and customs. The “Four Freedoms” cannot be enjoyed under Jim-Crow influences. Officers of the War Department General Staff have refused to attempt any remedial action to eliminate Jim-Crow. In fact, the Army, by its directives and by actions of commanding officers, has introduced the attitudes of the “Governors of the six Southern states” in many of the other 42 states of the continental United States.

7. I believe the time has come for the War Department to give some consideration to relieving the colored troops now located in the six Southern states referred to by General Cooke. Some consideration should be given to the replacement of white commanding officers by colored officers of proven ability--those who have met War Department requirements for promotion and assignments. Colored officers commanding colored units would go far toward insuring the confidence of the colored citizens in the fairness of the War Department. Unless something is done in the near future, the War Department in coming in for a great deal of criticism by the politicians in next year’s political campaign.

8. I have always tried to be wholly impersonal in connection with the performance of my duties. I have at all times received the kindest consideration and cooperation from those with whom I have been associated. I have striven at all times to successfully accomplish the missions assigned to me. I am grateful for the privilege of contributing to the war effort. The Department can justify its failure to give me a promotion. The colored people only know the long time I have been in grade. I believe a promotion coming to me at this time, and a gradual relief of colored troops from Southern stations, and the assignment of colored officers of field grade to the command of colored units would go a long way toward inspiring confidence of colored people in the War Department.

9. May I take this opportunity to say that I am grateful for the consideration and interest you have displayed in my personal comforts and welfare. I feel that it would not be fair to you if I did not keep you informed of the trend of colored opinions. I ask your indulgence for the personal references.

B. O. DAVIS,
Brigadier General,
U.S. Army.

Creative Writing Week 5: 2/27-3/2: Basic Figurative Language & Tall Tales

To help you better exaggerate your tall tale, you will want to use figurative language.

Task 1:  Define and find 5 examples of:

•         Simile
•         Metaphor
•        Hyperbole

Task 2:  Use your outline to write a first draft of your own tall tale.  Your tall tale must include the following criteria:

• a protagonist who is a real person, either historical or modern, but who you add details that describe him/her as having superhuman abilities in some way that helps people and has to do with their.
• at least 3 historic/realistic details
• at least 3 exaggerations
• a story with some sort of conflict that gets resolved/solved by the protagonist
• an exposition, rising action, climax (conflict is at a breaking/turning point), falling action, and a resolution
• at least 3 uses of figurative language (similes, metaphors, hyperboles—these will help with your exaggerations!)

Abnormal Psychology Videos

As part of your review of various psychological disorders, watch the following videos about:

• Dissassociative Identity Disorder
• Personality Disorders

Creative Writing Week 4: 2/13-2/17: Tall Tales Part 1

TALL TALES

What Are They?

      Tall tales are stories written from someone’s imagination.  The story can be funny or silly.  They are filled with exaggerations, similes, metaphors, and lots of descriptive language.  It is always told as if it were true, even though the listeners know that the story could never really happen.

      Some of the characters were real heroes and heroines whose stories got exaggerated a lot, others were characters such as cowboys, railroad workers, loggers, sea captains, and firefighters.  Tall tales told information that really happened at the time and combined it with a wild tale full of fantasy.

      In general there were some bad things about tall tales.  They were negative towards Native Americans, African Americans, women, and animals.  The tales were about people who were trying to conquer the American Wilderness.  Most of these tall tales were written back in the 1800s when the pioneers were trying to conquer the wilderness of America.  It was a way for the pioneers to make the taming of America a little easier to handle.

History

      Many settlers originally came west because someone made many optimistic claims, those which told only of the good things.  They were told the climate was perfect and that there was plenty of water.  They were convinced that crops would spring up overnight.  It was said that the soil was so fertile that even footprints would grow!

      In real life, living on the plains was a lot tougher that the settlers had been told.  After they found out what life on the plains was really like, they had to face many hard times.  It was easier to do that if a person used humor.  One farmer is reputed to have said, “It could be so hot one day that the corn popped, and so cold the next day that a bucket of water would freeze so fast that the ice would still be warm."

      The settlers loved to exaggerate when they told tales about the huge animals, the incredible weather extremes and the monstrous fish that got away.  We can thank the pioneers for tall tales.  Tall tales have been associated with America’s past.

      Tall Tales are part of our nation’s oral history.  We can make many connections between such tall tales and events in history.  Among these are John Henry and the expansion of the railroads, Paul Bunyon and the timber industry, and Johnny Appleseed and agriculturalism.  Tall tales were stories told and passed down from generation to generation. 

Ref: School District of Greenville County, 2012, http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/stone/staff/lessons/bennett/tales.asp

Directions:

1.  Read/listen/watch two of the following tall tales:  John Henry, Paul Bunyon, Johnny Appleseed.  As you read/listen/watch, make a 2-column list.  One column should list the realistic/historical aspects of the story, and the other column should list the exaggerated portions of the story.  Try to include at least 3 items in each column for each story.

2.  Write an outline for your own tall tale.  The character should be a real person, either historical or modern who you would consider a hero.  The outline should include the following ideas for your story:

• a protagonist who is a real person, either historical or modern, but who you add details that describe him/her as having superhuman abilities in some way that helps people and has to do with their job  (ex.  Paul Bunyan's size, John Henry's strength, Johnny Appleseed's ability to communicate with nature).  For example, you may choose to write a tall tale about Paul Revere's superhuman ability to ride faster than the wind to warn that "the British are coming," or you may write a tall tale about Mariah Carey's superhuman ability to break glass with her voice, or Martin Luther King, Jr.'s superhuman ability to make people see beyond skin color through superhuman speeches.
• at least 3 historic/realistic details (think about setting details and/or historical events)
• at least 3 exaggerations (think about either your protagonist or the conflict involved)
• a story with some sort of conflict that gets resolved/solved by the protagonist
• an exposition, rising action, climax (conflict is at a breaking/turning point), falling action, and a resolution

Creative Writing Week 3: 2/6-2/10

Fractured Fairy Tales:

Week 3: Fractured Fairy Tale

1.    View/read the following fractured fairy tales.  A fractured fairy tale uses familiar fairy tale stories, but subverts some elements, such as characters, setting, points of view, and/or plot points.  They are usually humorous and satirize the genre or modern life in some way.

a.    The Ugly Duckling

b.    Son of Rumplestiltskin

c.    The True Story of the Three Little Pigs

2.    Write a brief explanation about how each of the fractured fairy tales that you viewed/read uses aspects of the original as well as subverts the original and what humorous commentary the tale seems to make.

3.    Write a rough draft of your own fractured fairy tale, using a different fairy tale than the above mentioned.  It should have:

a.    A clear conflict

b.    A developed protagonist and at least one other character

c.    A setting: time and place

d.    An exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a resolution

e.    Obvious references to the original fairy tale

f.     Obvious differences from the original tale.  You may consider telling the story from the point of view of the “villain” or writing a sequel or prequel to the story or making the story updated (the female saves the man, for example)

**Fairy tales to consider: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Hansel & Gretel,” “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “The Frog Prince,” “Goldilocks & the Three Bears,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Snow White.”  You may choose to use another fairy tale, of course, but this list should give you some ideas…

Schizophrenia & Its Types

1. Read the informational packet about schizophrenia and discuss it in class.
2. Watch the  "Reading Out" video from the Schizophrenia Society of Canada and discuss it.
3. Choose one of the types of schizophrenia to write a fictional case study about.  Your case study should include the following:

• Written like a story.
• Provide basic background information about a fictional patient, including age, employment/school status, family and personal information (drug use, friends, romantic relationships, etc.)
• Integrate presenting symptoms in a realistic fashion.
• Be at least five sentences long.

     4.  Review the treatment options for schizophrenia and add this information to your case study.

World War II Videos & Images, Part 2

Go to The History Channel's online clips of WWII programs and view the following videos and photos in the following order.  As you are viewing each item, write down two or three key facts that you learned or write a one sentence reaction to the footage and the information (what does it make you think of or feel?):

1. Allied Advance Stalls at Normandy
2. Battle of the Bulge
3. Women Factory Workers
4. WWII Pilots & Planes
5. WWII Posters
6.  WWII Political Leaders
7. Hitler's Military Blunders
8.  WWII Spy Strategy
9. WWII Destruction
10. WWII Rest & Relaxation

E.A.Poe's "The Raven"

Watch The Simpsons's interpretation of this Poe classic: