Celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, participate in the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Untold Civil Rights Stories Writing Contest! Submit your completed work here.  Official rules here.

Essential Questions:

1. In times of war, how would you safeguard civil liberties while maintaining national security?
2. What was the government’s reasoning behind the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II?
3. How did the Japanese American community respond to the internment order?
4. How did the September 11th attacks affect Americans’ views of Asian Americans?
5. How should we move forward? What can we do to prevent future incidents like this?

Writing Process:

• RAFT Writing Prompts
• Outline/Tree Map
• Writing Rubric

Supporting Texts:

• “One Man Seeks Justice from a Nation: Korematsu v. United States” (Eric Yamamoto, Dale Minami & May Lee Heye, AAAJ-LA)
• “Korematsu Day Background” (PowerPoint)
• “Remembering the No-No Boys” (Nadra Kareem Nittle, About.com)
• “Silence…No More” (Kiku Funabiki, AAAJ-LA)
• “Who Took the Rap? A Call to Action” (Russell Leong, AAAJ-LA)
• “Why Children Did Not Knock at My Door on Halloween This Year” (Ifti Nasim, AAAJ-LA)
• “After Word: September 11, 2001” (Russell Leong, AAAJ-LA)
• Transcript of Executive Order 9066: Resulting in the Relocation of Japanese (1942)

Online Video Resources:

• “Japanese Internment in America” (History Channel)
• “Japanese Relocation” (U.S. Office of War Information)
• “A Message from Karen Korematsu” (Korematsu Institute)
• “Korematsu and Civil Liberties” (Annenberg Classroom)

• Pilgrimage (Tadashi Nakamura)