Advanced Search
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
# of # results
Chapters
-
Video
Righting a Wrong
Japanese Americans recount the challenges they faced after World War II, and the decades-long fight for reparations.
-
Image
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.
-
Image
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.
-
Image
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.
-
Video
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.
-
Image
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.
-
Image
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.
-
Image
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.
-
Image
Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Authority Camps Map
Map of Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Camps.
-
Video
Looking Like the Enemy
Japanese Americans recount the fear prevalent after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and what it was like to be forced from their homes.
Chapters
# of # results
-
Module
Module 2: US Territories in the Pacific
Kenneth Gofigan Kuper
Chapter:
Decolonization in the Pacific
-
Module
Module 3: Geopolitics of the Pacific Islands
Kenneth Gofigan Kuper
Chapter:
Decolonization in the Pacific
-
Module
Module 4: The Fight for Sovereignty in the Pacific Islands Today
Kenneth Gofigan Kuper
Chapter:
Decolonization in the Pacific
-
Module
Module 5: Everyday Decolonization in the Pacific Islands
Kenneth Gofigan Kuper
Chapter:
Decolonization in the Pacific
-
Chapter
Chapter Overview: Kānaka ’Ōiwi: Indigenous Hawaiians
Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor
-
Module
Module 1: Kānaka ‘Ōiwi Maoli: Hawaiʻi Identity
Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor
Chapter:
Kānaka ’Ōiwi: Indigenous Hawaiians
-
Module
Module 2: Ea Hawaiʻi: Kānaka ʻŌiwi Governance
Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor
Chapter:
Kānaka ’Ōiwi: Indigenous Hawaiians
-
Module
Module 3: Kahoʻolawe: Rebirth of the Sacred
Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor
Chapter:
Kānaka ʻŌiwi: Indigenous Hawaiians
-
Module
Module 4: Flourishing of Kānaka ʻŌiwi Culture
Davianna Pōmaikaʻi McGregor
Chapter:
Kānaka ’Ōiwi: Indigenous Hawaiians
