Website Spotlight: Japanese-American Internment

Website URL: http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/non-flash/index.html

"A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution"
Smithsonian National Museum of American History

Introductory Note:

Welcome to one in a series of posts which spotlight quality websites that I use with my U.S. History survey course students at Azusa Pacific University to enrich the regular material in our learning modules.

In this post, I limit myself to those specific aspects of the website which I find fit particularly well within our face-to-face class sessions (each student is required to bring a laptop to class) or as the basis for the students' regularly-assigned written reactions.

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I ask the students to work through this entire exhibition:

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Here's how to maneuver your way through it:

Start with this URL:
http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience/index.html

~Click on "Begin the Story Experience" (select the Rich-Media Version)

~Each of the six pictures corresponds to the six major parts of the exhibition.

~Each of the six major parts of the exhibition is sub-divided into topics.

~Within each topic, click on the respective picture to take you to that section. Then use the horizontal scroll bar to move through the exhibit materials.

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Part One: Immigration

1. Issei: First Generation
2. Hawaii
3. U.S. Mainland
4. Legalizing Racism

Part Two: Removal

1. Crisis: Pearl Harbor
2. Constitution and the Executive Order
3. Process
4. Moving Out
5. First Stop: Assembly Centers

Part Three: Internment

1. Permanent Camps
2. Conditions
3. Home==Barracks
4. Work
5. Community Activities
6. Arts and Culture

Part Four: Loyalty

1. The Questionnaire
2. Segregation Camp: Tule Lake
3. Expatriation and Repatriations
4. The Draft

Part Five: Service

1. 100th and 442nd
2. Soldier's Life
3. Military Intelligence and Translation
4. Honors and Awards
5. Ironies of Service

Part Six: Justice

1. Post-War
2. Court Cases
3. Formal Apologies and Redress
4. Repairing the Constitution
5. Japanese Americans Today

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Concluding Note:

I hope you will use this blog post in conjunction with both the modules on my Learning Professor wiki and the numerous other posts in my Website Spotlight series.

1. The website spotlighted in this post fits within the following U.S. History survey course module on the wiki:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/World+War+II

2. The other blog posts in my Website Spotlight series--chronologically displayed by U.S. History survey course module-- can be found on this wiki page:
http://thelearningprofessor.wikispaces.com/WEBSITE+SPOTLIGHT