Japanese-American Internment: The Bill of Rights in Crisis

Your students will identify with the plight of Japanese internees as told in their letters, diaries, and photographs. Students will discuss this tragic chapter of U.S. history, and learn the dangers of majority abuse of a minority group. This portfolio provides the complete story from Pearl Harbor in 1941, through FDR’s Executive Order 9066, to President Reagan’s official apology with reparations in 1988. This portfolio includes a Student Guide with reproducible activities and a timeline that presents the crucial events between 1800 and 1992. 6 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * 1800s to Pearl Harbor * From Pearl Harbor to Executive Order 9066 * Life in the Camps * Split Decisions: Americans of Japanese Ancestry in Court * Affirming Loyalty * Ending the Relocation, Finally 14 Primary Source Documents: * Front page: San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, 1941, announcing Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor * Walter Lippmann’s, “Fifth Column” article, February 12, 1942 * Executive Order 9066, by F.D.R. on February 19, 1942 * Public Law 503: Penalties for not following Order 9066 * Exclusion Order Number 27, with map of prohibited area * Map: The locations of assembly and relocation centers * Clippings: Seattle newspapers on plights of those interned * War Relocation Authority report on internment, August 12, 1942 * Camp Harmony Newsletter from Puyallup A.C. * Student essay on journey from home to Pinedale A.C. * Page: Hunt High School yearbook, Minidoka R.C., Idaho * Supreme Court decision: Korematsu v. The United States * Controversial “no-no boys” questionnaire, February 1943 * Public Law 100-383, by President Reagan in August 1988, with apology to interned, granting each $20,000 in reparations