#NeverAgain Lesson 1
Personal Stories and the Impact of Incarceration
GRADES: 8 – 12
TIME ESTIMATE (not including extension): one hour
IN THIS LESSON STUDENTS WILL…
…learn that personal stories are an important, valid way of teaching and learning about history.
…understand why it is important for survivors of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II to share their stories.
…learn about the impact of incarceration on those who experienced it, particularly at a very young age.
BACKGROUND
#NeverAgain is a 2021 radio interview series with survivors who were among the over 120,000 people of Japanese descent incarcerated through President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066. Some younger descendents whose elders were incarcerated are also interviewed. Most survivors still living in 2021 were incarcerated as children. All of the people interviewed for #NeverAgain are also activists, involved in fights for justice, civil rights and civil liberties. The series is not only about the history of WWII incarceration, but about how people use personal stories to make change. Lesson 1 begins to explore the personal and family impact of being incarcerated.
DEFINITIONS
Lesson 1 Definitions are provided for terms and usages in the audio that may be unfamiliar to students
Internment vs. Incarceration
Concentration Camp vs. Relocation Center
Complicit
Dichotomy
INTRO (5-10 minutes)
Take time in beginning this first lesson to make a connection to other learning around the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. You may want to let students discuss for a few minutes what they feel they already know and what they wonder about. You could talk about other sources you have been using. Have you already included personal stories? Whose stories and how were they told? Let students know you will first listen to and discuss the audio and then work on an arts activity together to explore some ideas the speakers have shared. If you plan to include the Action Civics Project extension, you can introduce this idea briefly as well — that students will be creating their own change-making story projects.
AUDIO (6 minutes) Speakers in this excerpt:
Satstuki Ina – born in Tule Lake maximum security prison camp
John Tateishi – spent his early childhood at Manzanar concentration camp
Sita Bhaumik – descendent of a Japanese Latin American grandfather who was incarcerated
Mike Ishi - child of incarcerated parents
Flora Ninomiya – incarcerated as a child at Topaz concentration camp
DISCUSSION (15 minutes)
Satsuki Ina says she was “born in captivity”. What does that phrase mean to you?
What did John Tateishi understand (or not understand) about what was happening? What does dichotomy mean? What dichotomy did being incarcerated cause him to see?
Sita speaks about her grandfather being incarcerated in Columbia at the request of the U.S. government–is his story a familiar one to you?
Why do you think Mike Ishi’s grandmother would talk about the incarceration but his mother would not?
Why does Flora Ninomiya feel is it important to tell her story?
If you have had students read other experiences of incarceration, ask them to make connections with the speakers they heard today.
ARTS ACTIVITY (30 minutes) Story Pyramids (PDF)
RESOURCES #NeverAgain Lesson Images
EXTENSION (Action Civics Project)
Introduce the Action Civics Project and the Project Journal. Review the project plan elements on Action Civics Project Handout #1 – a very brief summary (like a “book title”) that describes the story they want to tell. Make sure to have a plan for reviewing this information with each student, to ensure they are making progress.