This curriculum unit was developed as an antidote to ignorance and racism and to address and enhance the understanding of the reality of our collective lives. My goals are rooted in the fundamental purpose of challenging my students to recognize one of the most frightening abuses of state power in the history of the United States: the Japanese Internment and the role of society played in perpetuating the isolation and devaluation of Japanese American culture. Through the work of visual artist Roger Shimomura. I will demonstrate to my students that acculturation was not an obstacle for Japanese American artists who visually articulated a cross cultural identity. Shimomura is an American artist of Japanese ancestry who has commemorated his family’s internment during World War II. He combines Japanese literary tradition with pop-art images in idioms of the popular genre called Ukiyo-e (pictures of the floating world) as he concomitantly examines his relationship between his American identity and his Japanese heritage.
“Our Past Acclaims Our Future: Japanese-American Artists Respond To The American Experience: Roger Shimomura, Sansei.” is intended for my visual arts students and interdisciplinary classes at Cooperative Arts & Humanities Magnet High School. “The CO-OP,” as the school is known, is a visual and performing arts interdistrict high school in New Haven, Connecticut. It offers a quality arts-focused curriculum within the context of a comprehensive college preparation program. Our student body reflects the diversity of Greater New Haven. 70% of our students (mostly minority) are from New Haven and 30% (mostly majority) are from the participating surrounding suburban districts. As a magnet school, our goals are for the purpose of reducing minority isolation and addressing diversity within the classroom, student body and the community. This curriculum unit is in concert with these goals. Additionally, as enrollment increases our school will undoubtedly see an increase in Japanese-American enrollment. This unit will introduce students to the work of Roger Shimomura, a Japanese-American visual artist, whose vision has too often been neglected in our curriculums. It will hopefully empower students to recognize social injustice and advocate for the constitutional rights of every one.
As a teacher at “The Co-op,” I am committed to meeting the needs of each student and challenging them beyond the parameters of the curriculum. At “The Co-op,” we are rather fortunate. Our school provides an enriched, stimulating environment where individuality is cherished and respect for differences is practiced. Students have the opportunity to learn and celebrate human differences and commonalities through our curriculum. Each year, students at “The Co-op” participate in a myriad of activities designed to foster positive interpersonal relationships amongst members of diverse groups in the classroom and to strengthen each student’s self-concept. We challenge our students with an understanding and appreciation of our pluralistic society. This unit is dedicated to all the idealists who believe in the engagement of strategies that enhance communication, develop cross-cultural understanding and awareness and lead to more positive learning outcomes.
