1939-1952

Lesson 2: WAR AND NATIONAL SECURITY

Landscapes of Injustice tells a story of the loss of home. It is about fear, racism, and measures taken in the name of security that made no one safer. It is also about the resilience of Japanese Canadians confronting injustice.

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Perspective Taking 101 Activity

In this activity students will explore the social, political, and economic climate as experienced by Japanese Canadians in the 1930s. The lesson activities will explore the extent of discrimination faced by Japanese Canadians in pre-war British Columbia. Students will examine political cartoons, images, archival documents and other sources in order to better understand the prevailing mood toward Japanese Canadians that laid the foundation for the extreme measures taken by the federal government in the 1940s.

SUGGESTED TIME: 60 MINUTES

Teaching Instructions

  1. Provide each student with a copy of Handout 2.1 Historical Perspective and review the elements of historical perspective taking. Take some time to check student understanding with the concept details described in the handout.
  2. Inform students that historians use primary source documents as a way to investigate the past and provide evidence for the conclusions they draw when telling a story about a particular event. Explain to the class that we want to understand the social, political, and economic climate of the 1930s in British Columbia.

    - Write the question on the whiteboard “What was the prevailing public attitude towards Japanese Canadians in the 1930s?”

    - Set up table stations and distribute copies of the sources (Sources 2.2–2.13) throughout the classroom. Our recommendation is to have not more than three sources per station with a minimum of 8 stations in use.

    - Mix the sources at each table using a variety of combinations (there will be some overlap as students move from station to station).

  3. Students circulate to four stations in a gallery walk format, recording information on the chart in Handout 2.1 Historical Perspective from each station. To avoid large congregations at each table you may want to set a maximum of 2–4 students at any one station. Have the students enter observations from the sources in the chart. Provide 10 minutes at each station and remind students to be thoughtful while assessing each piece of evidence.
  4. Debrief the observations, taking opportunities to comment on issues of presentism, context, perspective, and validity created by the source selections. Students then use the evidence collected on their charts to address the question. This may be discussed in a whole class activity, written in class or assigned for next class as a review activity prior to starting the Tug-for-Truth Activity.

Handouts

Sources