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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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We Hereby Refuse: The Akutsu Story
Read in this excerpt from the graphic novel We Hereby Refuse, based on true stories, about how the lives of Jim Akutsu, a Nisei college student in Seattle; his younger brother, Gene; and his mother and father are ruptured after FBI agents arrest Jim’s father.
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Yokohama, California by Toshi Mori
In this excerpt from the short story, “Lil’ Yokohama,” Nisei author Toshio Mori describes an idealized version of a pre-World War II Japanese American community in California.
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“No Japs Wanted”
This painting by Henry Sugimoto depicts a Japanese American family forced to leave their rural community.
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Issei Farmers in Gardena
In 1940, nearly two-thirds of all Japanese Americans living in Pacific Coast states, like those pictured here in Gardena, California, and Sumner, Washington, were involved in agricultural work or in the sale and transport of crops.
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Muslim Travel Ban Protest
Japanese Americans protesting at the Los Angeles International Airport against the Trump administration’s ban on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries.
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Alternative Facts: The Lies of Executive Order 9066
Documents uncovered in the 1980s by researcher Aiko Herzig-Yoshinaga and attorney Peter Irons show that during World War II, a Department of Justice Attorney, Edward Ennis, learned that claims made by General John DeWitt to justify the mass removal of Japanese Americans were untrue.
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Gordon Hirabayashi, Min Yasui, and Fred Korematsu
Forty years after the US Supreme Court ruled against Gordon Hirabayashi, Min Yasui, and Fred Korematsu, pictured here, federal judges in the 1980s overturned their criminal convictions. All three men subsequently received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest honor for civilians in the US.
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Japanese American Children in a Trailer Park
These children lived in a Burbank, California trailer park that served as temporary housing in 1946 for Japanese Americans who returned to Southern California after incarceration in concentration camps.
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The Tanforan Assembly Center Communal Bathroom
This drawing by artist Miné Okubo documents a communal bathroom at the Tanforan Assembly Center. Initially, no partitions separated toilets in camp latrines. This lack of privacy upset people.
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American Yellow Book Cover
In this excerpt from his memoir, American Yellow, George Omi recounts his uncle leaving his beloved dog at a San Francisco beach because he could not take the dog with him to the concentration camp.
Chapters
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Module 3: The Taste of Success
Susie J. Pak
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Module 4: Asian Americans and the Different Realties of the American Dream
Susie J. Pak
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Chapter Overview: Asian American and Pacific Islander Workers’ Organizing
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Module 1: Overview of Asian American Workers
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Asian American Workers’ Organizing
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Module 2: Hawaiian Plantation Workers Organize for Justice
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Module 3: Alaska Cannery Workers
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Module 4: Nail Salon Workers: Ethnic Labor Migration
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Module 5: Contemporary Asian American Labor Organizing
Tracy Lai and Kim Geron
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Hmong Americans
Ma Vang
