Staging the Compelling Question: Japanese American Incarceration During WWII

Have students use the Question Formulation Technique (QFT), developed by the Right Questions Institute, to analyze Dorothea Lange’s photograph. Give students a copy of the photograph and the Question Formulation Technique handout. Do not share any background information about the photograph except the name of the photographer (Dorothea Lange) and the year in which it was published (1942). 

Use the following procedure to guide students’ analysis of the photograph: 

• Step One: Produce questions—Place students in small groups and follow the procedure to produce as many questions about the photograph as they can without stopping to judge or answer the questions. Assign one student from each group the role of the recorder and ask them to write down every question exactly as stated. Circulate around the room to help students change any statements they make into questions.
• Step Two: Categorize questions—In their small groups, ask students to categorize each question as an “open” or “closed” question by placing an “O” or a “C” next to each question. A closed question is one that can be answered with “yes” or “no,” while an open-ended question requires more explanation. Then, as a class, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of asking both types of questions, focusing on the utility of each.
• Step Three: Prioritize questions—In their small groups, have students prioritize the questions they have generated by choosing what they consider to be the three most important questions. If students are struggling to prioritize their questions, you might ask them to narrow their focus, for example, by asking them to consider what questions a historian, a journalist, and/or a philosopher would find most important to ask. Then ask the groups to discuss and record a rationale for their choices and consider how they will use their questions as they move forward with the inquiry.
• Step Four: Reflect on the process—Share with the class the compelling question for the inquiry, “What can we learn from the stories of Japanese Americans who had to fight for their democratic rights and freedoms?” Ask students to discuss in their small groups how the questions they have developed in response to the Dorothea Lange photograph might relate to the compelling question.

Bring the whole class together and share some additional information about the photograph from the New York Times: 

“A sign in Oakland, Calif., in 1942. It had been placed in the window of a store on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The owner, a University of California graduate, would be sent to the internment camps.” 

Then share the following video from Densho, titled “Looking Like the Enemy” (0:00-6:59). As students watch the video, have them record important information in their notes. Then have them return to the list of questions they created in Activity 1 and write down any information they learned from the video that helps them answer their questions. 

Finally, close the lesson by sharing this quote from Robert Kashiwagi, a Japanese American survivor of incarceration: 

“As far as I'm concerned, I was born here, and according to the Constitution that I studied in school, that I had the Bill of Rights that should have backed me up. And until the very minute I got onto the evacuation train, I says, 'It can't be.' I says, 'How can they do that to an American citizen?'" - Robert Kashiwagi 

Ask students to jot down their reactions to the quote in their journals. Students may record their emotional responses to the quote, connect to other moments in history or literature, and/or think about the quote in relation to the compelling question for the inquiry: What can we learn from the stories of Japanese Americans who had to struggle for their democratic rights and freedoms?