The curriculum unit is intertwined within the appropriate Connecticut State Content Standards. The performance standard of Content Standard One: Historical Thinking will be achieved through student research. Students will be using MAGIC intercepts and government memorandums. This type of primary source analysis should be modeled to the students to give them the experience to accomplish this higher order function of learning on their own. Primary source evaluation will be encouraged for students of all ability levels. Further, students will have the opportunity to gather information from multiple sources and will have to distinguish between primary and secondary sources. Pictures will allow students to interpret data from photographs. At the end of the Unit, students should be able to describe the various causes that led to the internment of Japanese-Americans.
The performance standard of Content Standard Two: United States History will be met through student discussion of civil rights verses national security and defense. As this theme has occurred throughout the history of the United States, student comprehension of the issues surrounding the Japanese-American internment should always be linked back to this concept.
The performance standard of Content Standard Three: Historical Themes will be achieved by student demonstration
“of an understanding of the ways race, gender, ethnicity and class issues have affected individuals and societies in the past.”
Specifically, students will be able to discuss the issues of race and ethnicity that played a significant role in the internment of Japanese-Americans during the Second World War.
The performance standard of Content Standard Three: Applying History will be achieved as students will be able to empathize with both the plight of the Japanese-Americans who were forced into internment camps without due process and also with the difficulty that some government officials who struggled with the decision to remove Japanese-Americans without the proper due process. Students should also be able to discuss the similarities of the internment of Japanese-Americans to what has occurred at the Post-9/11 Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay.
The performance standard of Content Standard Five: United States Constitution and Government will be achieved through the analysis of the historical events surrounding the internment of the Japanese-Americans. Students will be able to demonstrate how the Constitution has provided checks and balances between the three branches of the United States government by discussing the decisions made by the Judicial branch in reaction to the actions of the Executive branch. This will be enhanced by discussion of the Guantanamo Bay internment camp and its creation after the events of 9/11.