This article describes how the author teaches 8th graders to imagine the experiences of people from another time in history and make connections to today. Through a role play, the author teaches the hidden story of Japanese Latin Americans during WWII. The role play engages students in exploration of a little-known piece of history--the…

A content analysis of ten United States history textbooks (2005-2008) was conducted by the researchers to determine the current depiction of Japanese Americans and internment during the World War II era. This study updates and expands upon the textbooks used in prior research by Romanowski (1995), Harada (2000), and Ogawa (2004) that had numerous…

On Friday, March 11, 2011, one of the worst disasters in the world hit the country of Japan. A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, forever changing the lives of the people and the state of the country. Not only were lives lost and homes destroyed, the tsunami that followed caused numerous nuclear accidents around the Fukushima…

With high rates of out-marriage and dwindling need for bilingual worship, Japanese-American churches face a critical question: "Why retain the Japanese part of our identity?" This article explores how one layperson (Naomi Takahashi Goto) draws from her experience as an artist, teacher, and mother to help her congregation answer this question.…

Educational success among Asian American students has often been misunderstood as an occupational development separate from any experience of racism. However, several theorists have suggested that racial barriers in occupational mobility correlate with educational pursuits. Therefore, this research aims to examine the direct effect of perceived…

Human nature draws people to conflict. They become curious about the overheard argument at the next table in a restaurant, or a conflict between parent and child in the supermarket. Too often textbooks and other teacher-proof curriculum for young children provide a pat and happy presentation, devoid of conflict. Not surprisingly, these materials…

This article examines a case of curriculum conflict in order to understand how the social studies curriculum is changed by such conflicts. In the case, a small group of activists challenged a local sixth grade history curriculum, which claimed that the WWII internment of Japanese Americans was a mistake. Activists claimed that the internment was…

When Midori Funatake came here to the University of Oregon in 1940, she never suspected that she would not get her degree until Sunday, April 6, 2008. Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, during her second year. Fellow students and campus officials expressed sympathy to her, she says, but "the newspapers said anybody of…

The topic of bilingualism has aroused considerable interest in research on language acquisition in recent decades. Researchers in various fields, such as developmental psychology and psycholinguistics, have investigated bilingual populations from different perspectives in order to understand better how bilingualism affects cognitive abilities like…

Published research suggests that literature should transmit ethnic and societal values as well as reassure one's own confidence and self-respect. This study provides a model for examining Asian-American children's and adolescent literature critically from the perspective of identity issues. It examines fifteen award-winning Asian-American…

The purpose of this article is to describe how homophobic bullying and bullying based on racism intersect in graduate school through the personal narrative of a gay Japanese male graduate student. First, I will provide a critical incident that demonstrates when, where, and how bullying based on homophobia and racism occurred in a specific graduate…

The history of the United States includes myriad examples of courage and selflessness as well as instances of prejudice and discrimination. Many students believe that prejudice and discrimination are limited to individuals and do not realize that these can form part of government or national policy. In this article, the authors highlight the…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether school experiences, school performance, and other risk-protective factors were related to violence among Hawaiian, Filipino, and Samoan youths residing in Hawai'i. This study analyzed survey data (N = 325) collected in three high schools having concentrations of Filipino, Hawaiian, and Samoan…

This article examines how "Nisei," the second generation of Japanese immigrants, in Hilo on the island of Hawai'i have maintained their Japanese cultural and linguistic skills. In this article, the author first provides a history of these Japanese immigrant communities in Hilo. This article describes the author's research findings. The…

Recent writings on visual culture and art education emphasize contemporary artists, artworks, and objects from everyday life as an avenue for exploring the images school-aged students confront. The use of contemporary images is a vital and significant curricular need. However, the relevance of historical artworks can offer avenues for analyzing…