This interactive game from WNET Thirteen, “Prisoner in My Homeland,” puts players in the shoes of 16-year-old Henry Tanaka, in 1941, whose family is forced to leave their home on Bainbridge Island, WA, for a prison camp in Manzanar, CA. Players grapple with the choices and challenges faced by more than 120,000 Japanese Americans as they coped with their unjust incarceration during World War II. Teachers will need to register to play this game. The game can be played in a whole group setting or individually. Teachers can also download a teacher's guide.
In this lesson, students investigate a series of primary documents to address the question: Why did the United States government incarcerate Japanese Americans during World War II? Students will watch a newsreel from 1942 that the government made to explain the internment. Then, students will read four other primary documents about the internment to answer the essential question.
The website includes lesson plans, PowerPoint presentations, primary source documents, and student graphic organizers. Teachers will need to create a free account to access the materials.
After reading this passage, students will learn about the impact World War II had on the lives of American citizens, including women. During World War II, some 350,000 women served in the U.S. Armed Forces, both at home and abroad. They included the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots, who on March 10, 2010, were awarded the prestigious Congressional Gold Medal. Meanwhile, widespread male enlistment left gaping holes in the industrial labor force. Between 1940 and 1945, the female percentage of the U.S. workforce increased from 27 percent to nearly 37 percent, and by 1945 nearly one out of every four married women worked outside the home. This learning activity provides an informational text, video, and comprehension questions.
Note: You will need to create a free account to access this resource.
In this video from PBSLearningMedia, John Green teaches students about World War II, as it was lived on the homefront. You'll learn about how the war changed the country as a whole and changed how Americans thought about their country. John talks about the government control of war production and how the war probably helped to end the Great Depression. Broader implementation of the income tax, the growth of large corporations, and the development of the West Coast as a manufacturing center were also results of the war. The war positively changed the roles of women and African Americans, but it was pretty terrible for the Japanese Americans who were interned in camps. In short, World War II changed America's role in the world, changed American life at home, and eventually spawned the History Channel.
This is a collection of videos, articles, photographs, and activities for students to explore the Tuskegee Airmen.
In this lesson, students will be divided into groups and pretend to be a family being relocated to an internment camp. They will read from the online exhibit A More Perfect Union and make decisions about what they will take with them to the camp. After discussing with their groups, students will visit the "Reflections" section and write a response to at least one of the topics.
In this learning activity, students investigate the economic and military factors that caused the United States to be on the winning side during World War II. Students will examine the impact of entry into World War II on American society. Additional resources are available under Download PDF or DOC including a video, war posters, and World War II statistics.
