Japanese American Internment Camps WebQuest
by Lisa Hayman
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction ·
Question ·
Background Info ·
Individual Roles ·
Group Process
Rubric ·
Conclusion ·
Teacher's Guide
Introduction
December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbour is bombed by Japan and enters World War Two. Within ninety days 110,442 persons of Japanese ancestry are evacuated from the West Coast of the USA into Internment Camps.
What led to this mass evacuation? What rights does citizenship guarantee?
History provides us with the opportunity to learn from the past. This WebQuest allows us to look at the events of World War Two and to consider these when considering recent events in Australia's history.
The Question
The main question you will be asked to find an answer for is:
Should Japanese American Internment Camps have been established during World War Two across the United States of America?
What place does Detention Centres have in Australia in the 21st Century?
Background Information
Before becoming an expert on one aspect of this topic, we'd better make sure that everyone on your WebQuest team has a basic understanding of the Japanese American Internment Camps. Use the links below to answer the six general questions:
What were the relocation camps?
Who was sent to the relocation camps?
When were the relocation camps established?
Where were the relocation camps located?
Why were Japanese American citizens sent to them?
Images of Pearl Harbour
Chronology of World War II Incarceration
Individual Roles
Now that you have some overall background knowledge, it's time to return to the main question for this WebQuest. Questions this big and important are better answered when a few people are working on it at one time. Things work even better when a group of you decide to look at the question from different perspectives. This way team members can become experts on different aspects of the question and then come together to poll their learning. This is where team work pays off. So are you ready to divide and conquer this question?
USA Politician 1945
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)Defend the position taken by the USA government towards Japanese Americans in 1942.
2}What questions would you like to ask President Roosevelt regarding why he took the action he did?
- Relocation of Japanese American
- Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942.
- Memorandum on Japanese American Internment Sites
- Document signed by President Bill Clinton in November, 2000.
- Final Report; Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast 1942.
- Relocation of Japanese Americans
Japanese American Citizen 1945
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)Examine the impact that the relocation of Japanese Americans had on these people?
2}As citizens of a country what rights do assume we have?
3}Identify the key issues faced by the people in the camps/centres.
4} What changes to the camps would you reccommend?
- My life in an Internment Camp
- Camp Life
- Internment of San Francisco Japanese
- My life in an internment camp
- A personal story of life in a camp
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)How do you think Americans felt after the bombing of Pearl harbour?
2)What rights do we expect 'citizenship' to provide?
3)In what ways did Japanese American citizens show their loyalty to the USA?
- Images of Relocation Centres
- [The construction] is so very cheap that, frankly, if it stands up for the duration we are going to be lucky.
Historian 2004
Use the links below to learn more about your role. Specifically, look for answers to the following questions:
1)Consider how the passing of time has changed the governments view of Japanese American Internment Camps.
2)What place do memorials have in history?
- Of Civil Rights and Wrongs
- Fred Korematsu was probably never more American than when he resisted, and then challenged in court, the forced internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
- 2000-11-09 Memorandum on Japanese American Internment Sites
- Japanese American Internment Memorial
Group Synthesis
Congratulations! Your team is now full of expertise. Each person (or pair) on your team have become experts on the topic of Japanese American Inernment Camps. You've all learned a lot of information. But guess what, gathering useful information isn't the same as truly understanding a topic. What experts in the field of learning suggest is that you now use that information in a new and challenging way. Then you'll really know about this topic.
So with your team members all gathered together, carefully read and try answering the main question for this WebQuest. See where you all agree and where differences arise.
Use information, pictures, movies, facts, opinions, etc you explored to convince your teammates that your viewpoint is important and should be part of your team's answer to the Task / Quest(ion). Your WebQuest team should write out an answer that everyone on the team can live with.
Real World Feedback:
Conclusion
At the beginning of this activity, you were asked about the truth. Did you discover it? Was there only one? Did everyone on your team think so? How did you answer the main question for this WebQuest? Have you checked the evaluation rubric to guide what you did?
You deserve a lot of praise for all the work you've done. And so does your brain. You've sure put that gray stuff to the test. You gained background information, developed expertise in one particular area and got into some pretty expert analysis. At times, you must have felt confused with ideas spinning every which way. That's normal when you're building new mental connections. It's funny, with each link between what you already knew and the new learning going on, you broke another different kind of link, remember the intellectual slavery we spoke about earlier? You're free! How will you use these ideas and strategies as you continue to grow and learn? It's all up to you. Good luck.
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created by Lisa Hayman email: hayman.lisa@bssc.edu.au http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/lhayman/japan/webquest.htm |