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An Issue of Loyalty: Exploring
the Treatment of Japanese Americans During World War II
(1941—1945)
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GRADES 5
through 8
SUBJECT AREAS
• History
• Multicultural Studies
• Language Arts
OVERVIEW
One overriding issue in the incarceration of Japanese Americans
was the controversy over loyalty and disloyalty. When the government
considered releasing inmates from the camps and allowing men
to join the army, it was concluded that only "loyal" persons
would be eligible for release and service. The rationale for
holding Japanese Americans shifted from "military necessity,"
or the fear of espionage and subversion, to disloyalty. Thus
it became necessary to determine who could be called loyal and
who were labeled disloyal. A principle method for determining
this was a questionnaire, but this method proved disastrous
and led to great abuse and hardship for the inmates. The abstract
concept of loyalty was also put to the test through investigation
of internees’ backgrounds. This lesson plan is designed
to acquaint students with the situation as it happened in the
camps and to examine these abstract ideas as they relate to
our real and everyday lives.
MATERIALS
• The Film Rabbit in the Moon
MEDIA COMPONENTS
www.geocities.com/athens/8420/main.html
Has URLs of many useful Web sites related to the Japanese-American
internment
http://www.asianlawcaucus.org/
The Asian Law Caucus Web site. Click on "Anti-Asian violence"
for articles and statistics
http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/01/03/MN7534.DTL
Article about hate crimes against Asian Americans
http://www.mrs.umn.edu/~ummasa/harvard/
Article about Asian Americans as the "model minority"
http://www.asianweek.com/
Web site for Asian Week, a weekly newspaper for and about
the Bay Area’s Asian community.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• Students will consider the meaning of loyalty.
• Students will explore the history of Japanese in the
United States.
• Students will consider the meaning of citizenship.
TIME Two class periods (50
minutes each) and research time for students
PRE-VIEWING ACTIVITY
Before showing the film to students, explore the concept of
loyalty. What is loyalty? What is disloyalty?
1. Brainstorm with the class, throwing out age-appropriate
questions about loyalty to friends, family and school. On the
board or the overhead, list types of behavior that are considered
loyal and disloyal.
2. Point out situations of competing loyalties (friend vs.
family, one friend vs. another, etc.) and emphasize that issues
of loyalty are not necessarily clear-cut.
3. Summarize the kinds of behavior normally considered disloyal:
acting like you prefer one person over another, hurting someone’s
feelings, harming someone physically, financially or in some
other way, making someone look bad, embarrassing someone, and
so on.
4. Then move the question of loyalty to wartime and
add more items to the lists. What kinds of behavior are considered
loyal or disloyal during war? (Draw similarities to the students’
lives, such as an argument within a group of friends or being
pressed to "prove loyalty" to one angry friend by taking a stand
against another friend.)
POSTVIEWING ACTIVITIES
Activity 1 - Have students write an essay on the following:
What if Canada and Mexico allied themselves to attack the United
States and you had friends and relatives in these countries?
Would you be tempted to do things that others might think disloyal
(such as write letters, defend your relatives, etc.)? What if
your grandparents or parents were born in Canada or Mexico and
moved to the United States? What would you do to "prove" you
are a loyal American? Would you change your name to sound more
"American"? Would you give up eating traditional foods? Would
you stop speaking your native language? (Point out that these
are things some German Americans did during World War I to prove
their loyalty to the United States.)
Activity 2 - History of Japanese Americans in the United States
Have students break into three research groups, and have each
group take a topic from A, B, or C below, researching the experience
of Japanese Americans from their arrival through incarceration
to the present. Have each group create a presentation for the
class. It can be a poster, Power Point or other computer-generated
presentation.
A. History up to Pearl Harbor
1. Some points to cover: When did the first wave of Japanese
arrive in the United States? What brought them here? How were
their dreams similar to that of other immigrants? Where did
they settle? What occupations did most hold? How were Japanese
immigrants treated differently from White (European) immigrants?
Were Japanese allowed to become citizens? What other forms
of discrimination did they face?
[A good source is Personal Justice Denied, the Report of theÊ
Commission on Wartime and Internment of Civilians, United
States, Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office, 1983]
B. Pearl Harbor and World War II , including internment of
Japanese Americans
1. Use a map of the Pacific (perhaps a transparency on the
overhead) to illustrate the military situation in early 1942.
Show the Japanese Empire and its recent attacks. Point out
the location of Hawaii and calculate the distance from Hawaii
to the West Coast of the United States.
2. Questions to consider: How many internees were citizens?
Had any of the internees done anything illegal? What happened
in Hawaii? Were German Americans or Italian Americans interned?
Did the internees try to prove their loyalty to the United
States?
3. Some men chose to fight in the American army. Students
can do research on the 442nd and write about their exploits.
4. Discuss how, a year after incarceration began, a mandatory
questionnaire was used to segregate those deemed disloyal.
C. World War II to 2001
1. Did the U.S. government ever admit that the internment
was wrong? Have students research the campaign for redress
from 1980 to 1988.
2. Do Japanese Americans experience discrimination in the
United States today? What forms does the discrimination take?
What does it mean to be considered a "model minority"?
How might this label be hurtful? (Reference the Asian Law
Caucus and Asian Week Web sites.)
D. Conclusion
Have students present their findings to the class. Discuss
with the class:
1. Why were Japanese Americans treated differently from German
Americans and Italian Americans during World War II?
2. Was it fair to intern Japanese Americans this
way? Why or why not?
3. Was it constitutional? (Refer to the Fifth Amendment:
"No person shall be...deprived of life, liberty, or property
without due process of law. ...")
4. Can anybody really prove something like loyalty? Should
anyone have to prove it?
Activity 3: What it means to be an American
A. Definition of citizenship
1. Have students research how citizenship is defined. Can
a person be a "loyal" American without being a citizen? What
rights does citizenship confer on a person? What responsibilities
are expected? How can a person deal with divided loyalties?
B. During World War II, the rights of citizenship were ignored
and violated. They were put into the status of "non-Americans."
How was this made possible? For Japanese Americans loyalty began
to mean different things. Some chose to show loyalty by volunteering
for the army and being drafted when called. Others chose to
show loyalty by protesting against the incarceration and asking
that their rights as American citizens be restored.
1. Have students do a divided diagram showing how differing
ideas of loyalty resulted in different acts and behaviors.
Have them write an essay on how these actions relate to the
meaning of being an American.
STANDARDS
Language Arts: Grade 6
WRITING
• Write research reports, persuasive pieces and responses
to literature.
Language Arts: Grade 7
WRITING
• Use structure, support and pre-writing for compositions,
revise them for word choice, identify and narrow topics, and
cite information correctly.
Language Arts: Grade 8
LISTENING AND SPEAKING
• Deliver specific, insightful and organized oral presentations
that use a variety of primary and secondary sources.
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