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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

The author lives in a place filled with opportunities for girls like her. She is fortunate to attend school and enjoy activities like other young ladies. Her third- and fourth-generation parents encouraged her to attend Japanese Cultural School to learn about her heritage and to be proud of being Japanese-American. Her life has been filled with…

Decision making is one of the essential skills advocated by the National Council for the Social Studies for effective citizenship in a democratic society. Leaders in any society make decisions that influence many lives. In a democratic society, we expect that deductive and inductive reasoning guide decisions made for the common good. However, what…

A history of social justice in education is useful for at least two reasons. First, competing notions of social justice in education are not new. Tension between a belief in assimilation and the ability of individuals to climb the meritocratic ladder and the belief in a respect for cultural and linguistic differences and a flattening of the…

By reflecting on Japanese internment camps executed by the U.S. government in World War II, this article examines camp schools' curricula and writing assignments and an English teacher's response to student essays to show how racially profiled students and their Caucasian teacher negotiated the political meanings of civil rights and freedom.…

Although the Nisei ethnic group experienced much residential dispersal, members have not been absorbed into the majority group society, largely because of their tendency to maintain Japanese interpersonal style rather than accept the style of the United States. A primary cause of the Nisei's style is their expression of their subjective self. (VM)

Describes how participants (student authors ages 8 to 14) in the Westridge Young Writers Workshop (in a suburb of Denver, CO) came to deeper cultural awareness and respect through the exploration of the experiences of one ethnic group--Japanese Americans. (SR)

More than 300 men of Japanese descent refused to be drafted into the U.S. military in the 1940s, contending that they should not risk their lives for a country that had forced 120,000 Japanese-Americans, including them and their families, into internment camps. They would be willing to fight in World War II only after Japanese-Americans were…