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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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Chapters
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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.
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Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Authority Camps Map
Map of Temporary Detention Centers and War Relocation Camps.
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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.
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Kimiko Kitagaki Waiting for a Bus
Young Kimiko Kitagaki waits in Oakland for a bus to transport her to a government camp. Like all other Japanese Americans, the Kitagaki family attached tags with their names and government-assigned family numbers to their suitcases. They tied the same tags to the clothing they wore.
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Instructions to Japanese Americans Poster
Signs like this appeared in Japanese American communities along the West Coast in the spring of 1942 ordering them to leave their homes.
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American Concentration Camps
In this short video, Japanese Americans’ accounts of life in the camps contrast with the government’s depiction of them.
