United States History: 1877 to the Present

Turmoil and Change: 1890s to 1945

USII.6

The student will demonstrate knowledge of the major causes and effects of American involvement in World War II by

a) identifying the causes and events that led to American involvement in the war, including the attack on Pearl Harbor;
b) describing the major events and turning points of the war in Europe and the Pacific;
c) describing the impact of World War II on the homefront.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

Begin the unit by asking students how Americans at home supported the war effort and what effect the war had on race relations in America.
Explain that World War II affected every aspect of American life.
Discuss that Americans were asked to make sacrifices in support of the war effort and the ideas for which we fought.
American involvement in World War II brought an end to the Great Depression. Factories and workers were needed to produce goods to win the war.
Thousands of American women took jobs in defense plants during the war (e.g., Rosie the Riveter).
Americans at home supported the war by conserving and rationing resources.
The need for workers temporarily broke down some racial barriers (e.g., hiring in defense plants) although discrimination against African Americans continued.
While many Japanese Americans served in the armed forces, others were treated with distrust and prejudice, and many were forced into internment camps.
Provide some historical background on Japanese internment in the United States. Explain to students that after the attack on Pearl Harbor, all Japanese in the U.S., even Japanese Americans, were seen as the enemy by the American public and the federal government. By Executive Order 9066, signed by President Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, all Japanese (Issei) and Americans of Japanese ancestry (Nisei) were to be removed from Western coastal regions and put into guarded camps in the interior.
To understand the personal toll that internment took on individuals and families, have students read "Home Was a Horse Stall" by Jim Carnes, one of 14 stories of intolerance in America found in the magazine Us and Them, distributed by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Access the story online at the Web site of Tolerance.org http://www.tolerance.org/teach/expand/act/activity.jsp?p=0&ar=248&pa=1. This short story is about a young Japanese American woman in 1942 pondering the meaning of freedom behind barbed wire in an internment camp in California.
After students have read the story, hold a class discussion, using the following questions:
- What are some historical examples of discrimination against Japanese that are mentioned in the story?
- What often caused racial tensions to surface since the early 1800s?
- What were white Americans' typical response to the attack on Pearl Harbor?
- How did the Kataokas prepare for evacuation?
- What example in the story explains that not all whites saw the Japanese as the enemy?
- What were the conditions in the camps?
- How did the Japanese respond to internment?
- If you were a Japanese American, would you have fought for the United States in the army upon President Roosevelt's request?
- Do you feel the President made the right decision?
Following the discussion, have students create a historical marker for one of the Japanese internment camps. Additional information on the internment camps can be found at:

"Suffering Under a Great Injustice." Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/aamhtml/
Women Come to the Front: Journalists, Photographers, and Broadcasters during World War II -- Dorothea Lange at http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/wcf/wcf0013.html

On their historical marker, students should include an illustration with an inscription that discusses the historical significance of the site.
Have students read the article "Wartime and the Bill of Rights: The Korematsu Case" found on the Web site The Bill of Rights in Action of The Constitutional Rights Foundation at http://www.crf-usa.org/bria/bria18_3.htm. This article discusses the constitutional challenge to President Roosevelt's executive order. The article also provides students with an opportunity to discuss current civil liberty issues related to the USA Patriotic Act.

WEB SITES

http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/
World War II provided by PBS

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook45.html
Resources on World War II

http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/ww2guide/
Resources on World War II in the archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/
Achievements of General Douglas MacArthur

http://my.execpc.com/~dschaaf/mainmenu.html
Attack on Pearl Harbor

http://www.jmu.edu/madison/center/main_pages/teacher/curriculum/chap12.htm
Unit on World War II

http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/wwii/wwii.htm
World War II documents

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