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Asian American and Pacific Islander studies resources for the classroom
All chapters of Foundations and Futures include lesson plans and curricular tools that are designed for high school students and grounded in ethnic studies pedagogy. Feel free to search our repository of primary sources and material that helps bring Asian American and Pacific Islander histories and experiences into the classroom.
Multimedia
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Japanese Railroad Workers
Between 1890 and 1907, about 132,000 young Japanese men came to the continental United States. Many, like Masuo Yasui’s father and brothers, and the men pictured here, built the railroads that crossed western and Rocky Mountain states.
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Boys in Front of Manzanar Cemetery Monument
To ensure that this history is not forgotten, Japanese Americans have organized pilgrimages to former campsites, and they have advocated for preservation of some as educational centers. Pictured here are participants in the first pilgrimage, in 1969, to the site of the Manzanar camp.
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Righting a Wrong
Japanese Americans recount the challenges they faced after World War II, and the decades-long fight for reparations.
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National Coalition for Redress and Reparations March
Japanese Americans and their allies across the country held marches and lobbied Congressional representatives for nearly ten years to gain support for redress legislation.
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President Carter Signing Legislation
President Jimmy Carter in 1980 signing legislation to establish the Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to study the forced removal and mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. The Commission held hearings in ten cities.
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Yasui Family Portrait
He married Shidzuyo Miyake, and the couple raised a large family. White farmers in Hood River lobbied state legislators to bar Issei from owning land. The Yasui children were treated differently than their white peers. Owners of their town’s movie theater, for example, made them sit in the balcony.
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Japanese American Responses to Incarceration
Japanese American men recount their reactions to incarceration, the draft, and their experiences fighting in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
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442nd Regimental Combat Team
In early 1943, military recruiters visited the ten WRA camps. About 1,500 Nisei men volunteered. They joined nearly ten thousand Japanese American volunteers from Hawaiʻi to form the 442nd Regimental Combat Team which fought in Europe. Many of its members served and died while their families were imprisoned in the US.
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Barrack Interior at Manzanar Concentration Camp
Families or other groupings of up to eight people occupied a single 20-by-25-foot barrack room with a stove for heat, a single hanging light bulb, and metal cots. Inmates often hung blankets from the rafters, as shown here at the Manzanar camp, to create some semblance of privacy.
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Making Straw Mattresses
One of the first things Japanese Americans, like the Yasui family, did upon arriving at “assembly centers” was to stuff bags with straw to make their mattresses.
Chapters
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Chapter
Chapter Overview: Yuri Kochiyama: The Politics of Love, Liberation, and Solidarity
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 1: Overview: Digital Exhibition
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 2: Japanese Americans During World War II: The Lasting Impact of Imprisonment
Diane C. Fujino
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Module 3: Becoming an Activist, Growing New Ideas
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 4: Black Liberation and Afro-Asian Solidarity
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 5: Asian American Activism
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 6: Supporting Political Prisoners
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Module 7: Legacy of Yuri Kochiyama
Diane C. Fujino and Darlene Lee
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Cambodian Americans
Lina Chhun
