This curriculum unit is designed to come to grips with the United States government’s decision to intern one hundred and twenty thousand people of Japanese descent after Imperial Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and the simultaneous invasions all over Asia and the Pacific. The unit deals with primary sources which were known only to the President of the United States and a few key advisors until they were declassified in the 1970s. These sources are original transmissions sent from Japanese consulates in America to Tokyo, Japan. The main point of this unit is to grapple with a theme which runs through the history of the United States: national defense versus liberty and civil rights.
(Developed for American History, grade 8; recommended for grade 8)
