Activity 4-6

Activity 4-6: Perspectives Through an Autobiography

Introduction

Professor Daniel Okimoto, a professor of political science at Stanford University, was born at the Santa Anita Assembly Center and spent the first few years of his life in an incarceration camp in Poston, Arizona. Professor Okimoto reflected on the impact that growing up in camp had on his life in his 1970 autobiography American in Disguise. He wrote a retrospective to this autobiography in 2000. Students will read a selection from the novel American in Disguise as well as Professor Okimoto's retrospective, and will complete activities based on these readings.

Time

Two to three class periods

Materials

Handout 4-6a: Individual or Group Task Options (one copy per student)
Handout 4-6b: American in Disguise Chapters 2 & 3 (one copy per student)
Handout 4-6c: American in Disguise, a Thirty-Year Retrospective: 1970-2000 (one copy per student)

Download printer-friendly (PDF) file of Activity 4-6 handouts

Download printer-friendly (PDF) file of lesson page and activity procedures

Procedure

1. Download and print the PDF file of Activity 4-6 handouts. Make copies as indicated above.

2. Distribute Chapters 2 and 3 of American in Disguise. Ask students to read this for homework. Discuss these chapters with the following questions:

How does Professor Okimoto's autobiography address the issue of civil rights?
On what basis did the government decide to incarcerate Japanese Americans? Which civil rights were violated by this decision?
Which groups do you believe were responsible for the incarceration of the Japanese Americans?
On what basis did the U.S. and Latin American governments justify the transfer of people of Japanese ancestry from Latin America to the United States (pp. 22-23)?
Do you agree with Mr. Tameichi Okimoto's statement, "We have our rights and we've got to stand up for them!" (p. 31)?
Professor Okimoto writes: "Japanese ancestry automatically disqualified one from all the rights and privileges of citizenship." (p. 21) What rights and privileges of citizenship was he referring to? Do you think that Japanese Americans were denied their rights because of their ancestry alone?
Propaganda may be defined as statements designed not to convey information, but to sway public opinion. What examples of propaganda does Professor Okimoto describe?
From Professor Okimoto's comments, how did most Japanese Americans conceive of their status compared to other Americans?
Why might the U.S. public have consented to the violation of Japanese Americans' civil rights?
Could something similar to the Japanese American incarceration happen in the United States today?
What were the psychological effects of incarceration on the Okimoto family?

3. Distribute handout 4-6a: Individual or Group Task Options to each student. Please note that some of the activities were developed as individual activities, and others are for small groups.

4. Assign handout 4-6b: American in Disguise: A Thirty-Year Retrospective: 1970-2000 for homework reading.

5. Use the questions at the end of handout 4-6b to debrief this homework reading and connect this retrospective to American in Disguise.