Supporting Question 1: Historical Context for Japanese American Incarceration

Remind students of the compelling question for the inquiry, which they first were introduced to in the Staging the compelling question activity: What can we learn from the stories of Japanese Americans who stood up for their democratic rights and freedoms?

Explain that today, students will be examining sources that help them to answer the supporting question for this inquiry, which is, What conditions made the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II possible? To answer the question, students will be exploring a timeline that describes important events related to the historical context for Japanese American incarceration. 

​Explain to students that before they examine the “big picture” by working with the timeline posted around the room, they will first take time to think about some of the individual events that appear in the timeline. Specifically, they will work in pairs or trios to read a brief description of an event and consider how that event impacted both Japanese Americans/people of Japanese descent living in the United States and how it impacted democracy and freedom in the United States. 

Group students into pairs or trios. There are 12 event cards on Event Cards | Asian Discrimination in the United States Timeline for the class to analyze, and some of them are more complex than others. Depending on the size of your class and how you wish to differentiate the activity, group students accordingly.

Pass out one event card to each group. Then share the following analysis questions (by writing them on the board or projecting them) for groups to answer about their event. (Note that all event cards have multiple events listed on them. Students should be discussing the three questions below for all events.)

• What action or event does your card describe? Who is perpetrating the action/event?
• What impact do you expect this event to have on Japanese Americans or people of Japanese descent living in the United States?
• What impact do you expect this event to have on democracy and freedom in the United States?

Before students begin their work, consider choosing an event from the timeline for a “think aloud” to help students better understand the task. Then give students five to ten minutes to discuss their assigned event card and answer the questions.

Pass out the handout Action/Impact Graphic Organizer for students to take notes on as they create a human timeline and share their analysis of events from the previous activity. On a piece of chart paper or available whiteboard space, create a three-column chart with the headings Action/Event, Impact on Japanese Americans, and Impact on Democracy and Freedom so that you can model note-taking throughout the activity.

Ask each group from Activity 1 to choose a spokesperson, and then invite those students to line up along the timeline you have constructed in the room. Since there will be multiple students for some years, they should first gather at the year of their event and then arrange themselves chronologically by the specific date. 

Then have students share their events in chronological order. Each student spokesperson will (1) read the description of the event from their event card, and (2) share their group’s answers to the analysis questions.

As students report out, model taking notes on the chart you created while students fill in their graphic organizers. By the end of the timeline sharing process, the chart will display a summary of the systemic discrimination faced by Japanese Americans and people of Japanese descent in the years prior to and during Japanese Americans’ incarceration, and the impact of that discrimination on both Japanese American communities and on democracy and freedom in the United States.  

Note: Students will need the notes from the chart to complete the formative task later. Consider posting the chart in a prominent place in your classroom or allowing students to take a photo of it for them to access later.

To debrief the timeline activity, share the following quote from historian Roger Daniels:

“Once characterized as ‘our worst wartime mistake,’ [the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II] was neither a mistake nor an error in judgment . . . . The wartime abuse of Japanese Americans, it is now clear, was merely a chain in a link of racism that stretched back to the earliest contacts between Asians and whites on American soil.” ¹

Then, as a class, discuss the following questions:

• What does Daniels mean when he writes that Japanese Americans’ incarceration was not a “mistake”? How do the events you explored in the timeline activity support Daniels’s argument? 
• What events from the timeline activity seem most important for creating the “link of racism” described by Daniels?
• What effects do you think the “link of racism” had on American democracy during the period covered by the timeline, 1790-1942?
• What questions does the timeline activity raise for you?

• 1Roger Daniels, Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II (New York: Hill and Wang, 2004), 3.

Ask students to make a list of at least three historical events or factors that made the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II possible. They should also write 1-2 sentences for each historical event or factor, analyzing what impact it may have had on Japanese Americans and on democratic rights and freedoms in the United States.