I am the seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher at John S. Martinez Magnet school. The demographic of my student population consists of Latino and African-American children, 13-14 years old. The background knowledge of the majority of my students is severely limited. This creates an environment in which every objective that is taught must be accompanied by preliminary lessons that allow for scaffolding and student comprehension of the specific educational objectives to the larger world as a whole. This unit curriculum and the resources accompanying it will be of use to students at every level of junior and senior high school. The teacher must differentiate the material and modify the objectives according to the abilities and needs of his or her students.
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In the wartime history of the United State, there is always a battle fought between advocates of the national defense and advocates of the civil rights of citizens. On a simple level, these forces have the same motivations - they want to protect America and the values of freedom that our country represents. While the intentions of each side are true, their means to their objectives put them inherently at loggerheads. Advocates of civil liberties argue that if the rights of the people are restricted, then the very core values upon which our country was founded are lost. They argue that it is precisely in wartime that we must hold to the principles that define America. Advocates of national defense believe that during times of war, civil liberties may need to be curbed to protect the institutions that guarantee those same civil liberties during times of peace.
This argument, old as our country itself, had much to do with the creation of the Bill of Rights and has taken on many forms. There are many examples that can be cited. The Alien and Sedition Act was passed in response to hostilities with France. America was harboring 25,000 French refugees from the slave revolts in the French colony of Haiti and many in the United States government doubted the loyalty of these Frenchmen. Opponents of the Alien and Sedition Act feared that it would be abused and used to silence political opponents of the party in power. During the Civil War, fearing Confederate espionage, President Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. The First World War brought with it new legislation restricting the rights of certain groups and people to protest. One of the most glaring examples of the restrictions of individual rights occurred after the Imperial Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
The story surrounding the internment of over 120,000 Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast of the United States in the months following the surprise attack and destruction of the bulk of the American Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor is wrought with emotion and must be examined carefully. Presidents have apologized for the decision to disrupt the lives of these citizens. Congress has granted monetary reparations for the Japanese-Americans and their surviving kin who were relocated to these camps during the war. The entire episode is filled with accusations of prejudice, racism, economic self-interest and fear mongering. It appears that in attempts to make amends to the Japanese-American community for the infringement of their civil rights, the official policy of many in the federal government has ignored some of the circumstances involved in this difficult period in the history of the United States. There are no simple answers and the motivations of many are varied and difficult to understand as these events occurred over sixty years ago.
In fact, the standard accepted view is that the United States government at the urging of American farmers of European descent, combined with the post-Pearl Harbor xenophobic and blatantly racist anti-Japanese views of many military and civilian governmental officials, were the primary motivators of relocating 120,000 people of Japanese descent to internment camps. There can be no doubt that ample evidence exists to support this commonly accepted view of the events that transpired after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor. As many of the peoples of Japanese descent were farmers, it certainly would be in the financial interest of European-Americans to find a way in which to remove a large segment of competition for the best arable lands and the selling of produce. Japanese and other people of Asian descent had a long history of suffering from the race biases of European-Americans through such actions as the prohibition of land ownership and the refusal of the granting of American citizenship. Upon review of the transcripts of conversations of both military and civilian government officials at all levels, it is easy to find comments that would be viewed by all reasonable people today as abhorrently racist.
Due to the nature of the events and the ample evidence found, it would be quite easy to ascribe the decision by President Roosevelt and his advisors to simple racism. As this overwhelming evidence cannot be discounted, it would also become easy to assume this one view on the entire subject without any further analysis of other potential sources of motivation. One must always be vigilant against assuming a polarized perspective born of the overpowering emotions that a particular event can engender. Despite how strongly a person may feel about an event, one must never discount the potential for other causational factors or the need for unbiased analysis. Simply put, the circumstances surrounding the decision to remove people of Japanese descent living in America is not just a matter of land grabbing and racism. In fact, these circumstances were quite complex.
Learning Objectives
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1. Students will be able summarize the historical events surrounding the Japanese internment during the Second World War.
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2. Students will be able to identify and define various civil rights.
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3. Students will be able to explain MAGIC and its significance to the United States war effort against the Imperial Japanese armed forces.
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4. Students will be able to empathize with the plight of American citizens of Japanese descent.
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5. Students will be able to understand and explain the conflicts between civil rights and safety during times of war.
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6. Students will be able to assess the likelihood of a reoccurrence of this type of event in the future.
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7. Students will be able to explain the different motivations that various groups may have had in support of Japanese-American internment.
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8. Students will be able to analyze various primary source documents
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9. Students will formulate their own opinions concerning the decision by the United
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10. States government to intern peoples of Japanese descent.
