Karizumai: A five-day tour of Japanese Canadian internment sites
Ressources en français
Les ressources pour chaque activité de cette leçon dans ce plan de leçon sont fournies en anglais et en français. Cliquez sur les boutons « Voir les détails de l’activité de la leçon » pour basculer entre les ressources en anglais et en français que vous pouvez partager avec vos élèves.
Resources for this each lesson activity in this lesson plan are provided in English and French. Click on View Lesson Activity Details buttons to toggle between English and French resources you can share with your students.
Introduction
Created for the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s social studies 10 curriculum, this five-lesson set is centred on the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre publication Karizumai: A Guide to Japanese Internment Sites. Karizumai means temporary homes, and aptly describes the living conditions and locations for the purpose-built sites of internment. Its purpose is for British Columbia’s students to know and understand the Japanese Canadian experience before, during, and after the war.
Lesson overview
The premise for this lesson is that an actual tour of Japanese Canadian internment sites is not feasible for a significant majority of students and teachers in British Columbia; as such, the guide provides a framework for an imagined tour, based on the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre’s internment camp bus tour itinerary. If opportunities allow for teachers and students to visit any of the sites in the guide, in-person visits are highly recommended.
BC Ministry of Education social studies 10 competencies
Students are expected to be able to do the following:
- assess how underlying conditions and the actions of individuals or groups influence events, decisions, or developments, and analyze multiple consequences (cause and consequence)
- explain and infer different perspectives on past or present people, places, issues, or events by considering prevailing norms, values, worldviews, and beliefs (perspective)
- make reasoned ethical judgments about actions in the past and present, and assess appropriate ways to remember and respond (ethical judgement)
Content learning standards
Students are expected to know the following:
- discriminatory policies and injustices in Canada and the world, including residential schools, the Chinese head tax, the Komagata Maru incident, and internment
Essential questions
- What is the historical context to the Japanese Canadian internment during the Second World War?
- Why do we need to learn about the history of Japanese Canadians?
- Why is learning about the Japanese Canadian internment during the Second World War relevant in today’s world?
- What are the legacies of internment?
- How can visiting historic sites deepen our understanding of history?
Materials
- a class (or partial class) set of Karizumai: A Guide to Japanese Canadian Internment Sites (fifth edition)
- internet access and devices
- school-based devices with the National Film Board of Canada’s East of the Rockies app purchased and downloaded for student use
- chart paper: one for each K-W-L (additional, as needed); one for a word wall
- handouts (electronic or printed)
- pencil crayons, markers, Post-it sticky notes
Assessment
Assessment opportunities are at the teacher’s discretion. Given the exploratory and sensitive content of the activities, when considering the triangulation of assessment, an emphasis on observations and conversations is appropriate. Product options could be developed for the document or visual analysis worksheet(s), the student written-responses, any of the thinking routines, and/or the mini-inquiry project/presentation.
Lesson Plan Details
- Big Ideas:
- Internment, Global/Regional Conflicts, Historical & Contemporary Injustices, Racism, Rebuilding
- Subject:
- Social Studies, Social Justice
- Grades:
- Grades 10-12
- Time Commitment:
- 5 Classes
- Lesson Activities:
- 5 (Jump to Activities)
- Resource Languages:
- English, French
Lesson Activities
Karizumai bus tour day 1: Pre-boarding
Using the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre’s publication Karizumai: A Guide to the Japanese Canadian Internment Sites and the frame of an imaginary bus tour — based on the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre’s internment bus tour itinerary — our first day is pre-boarding. Students engage in an overview of the Japanese Canadian immigration and internment experiences.
Required Resources:
2 Handouts, 1 Source, 1 External Link, 2 Teacher Resources
Tour day 1: Pre-boarding
1.1 Agenda
Review the agenda for the first class — a pre-boarding bus tour day.
1.2 Activate
The teacher can pre-prepare three separate charts, and hang on the wall, each with one of the letters or words for the K-W-L strategy (know, want to know, learned).
- For today’s class, the intent is to complete the know poster to open the unit and establish background knowledge (see instructions on slide).
- At the end of the class, the intent is to start the want to know chart after the students have received the general overview. Note: this chart can be ongoing throughout.
1.3 Info slides: Direct Instruction
- Review the Japanese Canadian history in a nutshell slides with the class to establish shared foundational knowledge.
- View the video (11:16) for additional information and visuals.
1.4 Activity: Timelines
Students will explore the guide’s timeline of Japanese Canadian internment to pinpoint an event of interest. This event will act as a springboard to the web-based Landscapes of Injustice timeline where, related to this event, students will select either a document or image and conduct a document or image analysis (evidence and interpretation).
1.5 Closure
Based on today’s overview, students can discuss and/or add to the class W-chart.
Required Resources
Handout A1.1 Document Analysis
Handout A1.2 Image Analysis
Nikkei Centre Japanese Canadian History in a Nutshell
Japanese Canadian Internment
Landscapes of Injustice Timeline
Handout A1 Feuille de travail d’analyse du document
Handout A1 Feuille de travail d’analyse d’image
Karizumai bus tour: Day 2
Itinerary: Hastings Park Manning Pool, Tashme
Required Resources:
2 Sources, 6 External Links, 1 Teacher Resource
Tour day 2
The teacher can pre-prepare a chart entitled word wall. Over the course of the tour, students can add words that encapsulate the incarceration experiences — either guided or independently.
2.1 Agenda
Review the day’s agenda for the official start of our tour.
2.2 Activate
Students can explore the guide’s map (p. 4-5), as well as the two mapping sites provided (see slides) to learn more about Japanese Canadian incarceration and orient themselves geographically to the tour.
2.3 Info slides: Direct instruction
Students will learn the different types of camps for Japanese Canadians during the Second World War. It is helpful for teachers to review the different types of camps prior to this lesson.
2.4 Activity
a. Our first tour stop is Hastings Park. Using the images in the guide, the Beauty and Truth Thinking Routine, a short video, and the HastingsPark1942 website, students will develop their understanding of the use of Hastings Park — as evidenced by their contributions to the word wall.
b. Our final tour stop of the day is at Tashme incarceration camp. Students will learn more about Tashme from the sources provided, including the video Of Japanese Descent: An Interim Report (1945) that plays in the museum. Although the video talks about many of the incarceration camps, it focuses on Tashme closer to its end. Its historical portrayal of Japanese Canadians and bias is worth discussion.
2.5 Closure
Students will complete an individual reflection.
Required Resources
Heritage BC Japanese Canadian Historical Places Cultural Map
Hastings Park 1942
Hastings Park 1942 Stories
Japanese Canadian Internment Sites
Tashme Historical Project
Sunshine Valley Tashme Museum
Japanese Canadian Internment, Second World War
Of Japanese Descent: An Interim Report (1945)
Karizumai bus tour: Day 3
Itinerary: Religion, Self-supporting sites
Required Resources:
1 Handout, 6 External Links, 2 Teacher Resources
Tour day 3
3.1 Agenda
Review the agenda for day 3 of the tour.
3.2 Activate
On the K-W-L section, students consider and add Post-it notes for both the W (continued) and L (to date) charts. Discuss.
3.3 Info slides: Direct instruction
Teach students about a general relationship between religion and camp placement (see linked article). Also introduce self-supporting sites and the factors that distinguished these from the other internment camps.
3.4 Activity
Students will use articles and a case study of a Kishizo Kimura — who lived in the Christina Lake self-supporting site — to explore the idea and dilemma of collaborators through a case study using the take a stand (linked) thinking routine. Alternate option: if students enjoy opportunities to debate, small-group or class debate(s) could replace the thinking routine.
3.5 Closure
Based on completed take a stand documents, students can add any new words to the class word wall.
Required Resources
Japanese Canadians: Race, Religion, and Confinement
Government of BC Japanese Canadian Internment Signs: Greenwood
Government of BC Japanese Canadian Internment Signs: East Lillooet Self-Supporting Sites
Landscapes of Injustice Timeline: March 23, 1942
Landscapes of Injustice Timeline: February 20, 1943
Landscapes of Injustice: Case Study 1.4 The Reluctant Collaborator
Teacher Resource: Project Zero Take A Stand
Student Handout: Project Zero Take A Stand
Karizumai bus tour: Day 4
Itinerary: Slocan Valley, East of the Rockies
Required Resources:
2 Handouts, 1 Source, 1 External Link, 1 Teacher Resource
Tour day 4
4.1 Agenda
Review day 4 of the tour. Today uses three different text types created by Japanese Canadian author Joy Kogawa: poetry, augmented reality, and an argumentative essay. Teachers will have to access all three texts prior to the start of this day.
4.2 Activate
Before the start of class, pencil crayon packages will be distributed on each table (if completed by hand); otherwise, the thinking routine can be completed on the computer. The teacher will read aloud Kogawa’s poem What Do I Remember of the Evacuation. Students are to individually think and complete the colour symbol image (linked) thinking routine. This can be debriefed as a class.
4.3 Activity
a. Using the NFB’s augmented reality app (pre-purchased and downloaded to devices), as Yuki (the protagonist) students will experience both a Japanese Canadian incarceration camp during the Second World War, and the sugar beet projects in Alberta postwar when the Japanese Canadians were forced either to remove to Japan or East of the Rockies. Students should consider the questions posed on the Slocan Valley slide.
b. To further explore the sugar beet projects, students will be introduced to Joy Kogawa’s essay Grinning and Happy (ideally the teacher should read this aloud). Based on time, selected questions from the text can be used to prompt discussion and evaluate the different texts used to explore the challenges of sugar beet farming.
4.4 Closure
Students will complete an individual reflection. Use the Venn diagram to aid student understanding and analysis of the differing perspectives presented in Joy Kogawa’s poem Grinning and Happy, and the NFB film of Japanese Descent. Student then complete a reflection journal using the prompt.
Required Resources
Handout A4.1 “Grinning and happy” by Joy Kogawa
Handout A4.2 Colour, Symbol and Image
Source A4 “What Do I Remember of the Evacuation” by Joy Kogawa
App: East of the Rockies
Handout A4 Couleur, symbole, image
Source A4 Souriant et heureux — de Joy Kogawa
Source A4 Une Fenêtre Littéraire sur l’Internement Japonais
Karizumai bus tour: Day 5
Itinerary: Protest and redress, final day
Required Resources:
2 Handouts, 1 Source, 2 External Links, 1 Teacher Resource
Tour day 5
5.1 Agenda
Introduce the agenda for the final day of the bus tour.
5.2 Activate
As a class, students can recap yesterday’s learning by working in their groups to generate a word to describe yesterday’s learning and add it to the word wall.
5.3 Info slides
Students learn about Japanese Canadian protests and the redress movement. First, students will explore the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre’s online exhibit: “Writing Wrongs: Japanese Canadian Protest Letters of the 1940s.” Using the questions provided, students can add any new words to the word wall. As well, students will view a short video that recounts the redress movement, which culminated in the 1988 federal government apology and redress to Japanese Canadians. Students can also learn about the 2012 and 2022 B.C. government apology and initiatives. As a part of this movement, students will also consider the lasting impacts of the interment both on individuals and our society.
5.4 Activity
a. For this activity, students should use the Handout: See, think, wonder thinking routine (linked) to guide individual reflection about what they’ve learned — specifically through the guide. This will also give them the opportunity to consider a potential area of inquiry for their mini-inquiry project.
b. Mini-inquiry project
For this assignment, modelled on the guide, students will conduct research, cite credible sources and images to create their own “did you know?” fact summary for either a type of camp or a specific camp noted in the guide. See assignment. Note: the presentation is optional; if selected, it can be presented to a small-group or the whole class.
5.5 Closure
Charts can be completed, debriefed, and if possible, the end of the unit can be celebrated with a Japanese treat — edible or otherwise (e.g. origami).
Required Resources
Handout A5.1 Karizumai Inquiry Project: Did You Know?
Handout A5.2 See Think Wonder
Writing Wrongs: Japanese Canadian Protest Letters of the 1940s
Japanese Canadian Cultural Values in Human Rights
Nikkei Stories: Redress
Handout A5 Tâche d’enquête : Le saviez-vous?
Handout A5 Voir, réfléchir, se demander
Similar Lessons
At the end of the Second World War Canada engaged in the shameful act of trying to expel more than 10,000 Canadians of Japanese descent. Using a thinly veiled excuse that these Canadians had revoked their right to remain in Canada by signing a government form, Canada sought to remove as many Japanese Canadians as possible in early 1946. More than two-thirds of them were Canadian born or naturalized citizens, many of whom had never even travelled to Japan. In this lesson, students will learn about the government’s decision to encourage Japanese Canadians to move to Japan. Students will explore the rationale behind the policy, the tactics employed, and the experiences of Japanese Canadians pressured to leave the country.
- Big Ideas:
- Internment
- Subject:
- Social Studies, Language Arts, Social Justice
- Lesson Components:
- 2
- Languages:
- English, French
Japan has a long tradition of art forms that interpret the natural world through careful observation and simple, beautiful means. Gyotaku (fish printing), suminagashi (ink marbling on water), and takuhon (rubbing) are three of these traditions. Each one turns everyday materials into something that can be shared, preserved, and passed on. In these three lesson units you’ll try all three. You might be surprised by what you create — and what you notice along the way.
- Big Ideas:
- Connecting through Art
- Subject:
- Art
- Lesson Components:
- 3
- Languages:
- English
Patterns of Injustice is a three-lesson unit examining the importance of Japanese Canadian history and focusing on three Big Ideas: racism, resistance, and rebuilding. Big Ideas from the BC grade 6, 10, and 12 Social Studies curricula will be addressed and students will also explore curricular personal and social core competencies, defined as “the set of abilities that relate to students' identity in the world, both as individuals and as members of their community and society.”
- Big Ideas:
- Internment
- Subject:
- Social Studies, Social Justice
- Lesson Components:
- 3
- Languages:
- English