Some three hundred Bainbridge Island 6th graders learned last winter what life was like during World War II for the Japanese islanders who were exiled from their homes in the name of national security.
Last February, Bainbridge Island’s Sonoji Sakai Intermediate School (grades 5 and 6) commemorated the forced exclusion and incarceration of Japanese Americans with a special unit of study entitled “Leaving Our Island.” The unit had the broader goal of helping 6th-grade students understand the possible dangers of overzealous homeland security measures when our nation is in crisis.
I had taken a University of Washington class the previous spring on East Asian history, sponsored by the Freeman Foundation. To fulfill its requirements, I wrote a curriculum I thought was suitable for the 6th graders I was teaching in U.S. history. Our textbook had only one paragraph about the WW II incarceration, yet I knew Bainbridge was the first place from which Japanese residents were forcibly excluded. Not only did Japanese make many significant contributions to our island, our own school was named to honor Sonoji Sakai. It seemed more than appropriate to use the WW II incarceration to teach students a wider lesson on constitutional rights, especially in light of developments after 9/11.
As we were organizing for the new school year in 2003, I received information about the Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program set up by the legislature to fund teaching units such as the one I had written. It was an amazing coincidence. Our principal, Jo VanderStoep, urged me to apply. The rest is history. We were fortunate to receive $17,000 to implement the curriculum with teaching and reference materials and planning time for our teachers. The first year was wonderfully successful, assuring that this curriculum will become a permanent part of 6th graders’ academic experiences at Sakai.
CLASS PROJECTS
To begin the study, students were organized into literature groups; each one read a novel that portrayed on a personal level what life was like during this period for Japanese residents. Groups of six or seven students were then designated as families, and each group undertook research to discover what had happened to their family, before, during, and after WW II. We soon discovered it was too difficult to research all the actual families; instead, groups chose a family name and created a fictitious story based on events as they might have happened. Each group created a nine-panel storyboard, depicting their family’s saga for display in Sakai hallways.
To help students with their research, a number of activities were planned: a Forum Day, a Field Trip Day, assemblies with Seattle’s Living Voices Theater and Dr. Frank Kitamoto, numerous historically accurate videos, and the use of the Densho archives.
Forum Day was a major event. Using the BIJAC membership list, we invited people who either had been incarcerated, had had family incarcerated, or were friends of people who were incarcerated. We served a light luncheon to about forty wonderful, willing participants, who then were escorted to classrooms where they served in panels to answer student questions. Students loved hearing first-hand accounts of what actually happened.
Field Trip Day was conducted on the National Day of Rememberance of the incarceration, February 19. Our 300 6th graders were bused to the public library to learn the history of the beautiful garden dedicated to Issei settlers and to study the nature of haiku. They had lunch at the Filipino Hall, to learn its historic significance and the ties between these two ethnic communities. Back at Sakai, students visited sites set up around the building, learning about Sakai’s art installations, events connected to the incarceration, and the proposed memorial dock site in Bainbridge.
Our grant funded the construction of a full-scale barrack shack, similar to those at Manzanar, which we outfitted with authentic cots, straw mattresses, and even a coal-burning stove. Many students commented that they were particularly affected by seeing what the barracks were really like. We’ve now donated the barrack and artifacts to the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum. In future years, students will also visit the museum, newly relocated to the downtown core, and the proposed memorial site at the Eagledale departure dock.
IN TIMES OF PERIL
When our students started synthesizing all the information they learned into storyboards, we teachers realized how successful our curriculum had been. Not only had students learned about this period in our nation’s history, they had also transferred those lessons to the broader goal of understanding the importance of protecting the civil liberties of all citizens in times of national peril.
Many thanks need to go to the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community for helping us succeed. Without BIJAC’s unfailing willingness to answer questions, share personal and family experiences, and to serve as docents, we would not have been so successful. With out grant funding, we commissioned Scott Schmidt at B.I. Broadcasting to create a video of our efforts. BIB-Channel 12 aired it this summer. I’ve also given a copy to Frank Kitamoto for the BIJAC library. You will see many smiling BIJAC faces on that film!
Thank you again for all your help.
Clarence Moriwaki tells us that the School Board will meet 9/9 at 7 pm at the HS Library, and that our friend Karen Ahern is organization a show of support the the Bainbridge Island School District's curriculum on the internment. Please read the following and send an email to her at klahern@msn.com to obtain a copy of a petition.
From Karen Ahern:
Dear Supporters of Human Rights and Historic Truth,
Please see the enclosed articles below that address the group who have requested of the school board to "balance" and shorten the Sakai curriculum of the Japanese American Internment, or Concentration Camps, a more accurate term.
We greatly appreciate the right action of the school board to stand against those who wish to suppress historic truth who asked for "balance" on this topic. If we do not show strong support to uphold BISD resolve to teach truth, we know our curriculum will face other censorship, as it has in the past. This is a moment to stand up for Truth and know we must not let our guards down when Truth is under attack.
This group, led by Mary Dombrowski, Republican Woman Activist, used as an example of "balance" [edited] journalist Michele Malkin's book, "In Defense of Internment" see Review article. (It was interesting to note in a recent Seattle Times editorial that Malkin, while hawking her new book in Seattle, made a comment that John Kerry "probably shot himself in the leg to make himself the hero." Malkin is also an outspoken opponent of environmental health advocates who work to limit toxic exposures.) We are dealing with a small, vocal group of BI residents who need a lot of education and we must stand against their ignorance before they begin further censoring attempts. We need to be ever vigilante against those who wish to limit historic truth. There is already a lack of historic truth found in most American History textbooks and schools and we are most fortunate to have excellent teachers like Marie Marrs who teach beyond the textbook box.
We have all worked too hard to encourage BI Schools to support Truth to let our school's curriculum be denigrated by a few vocal parents. This would be an opportune time to ask the school administration to strengthen their resolve to teach an accurate, in depth, United States History to prevent horrific mistakes of the past and present.
*Of special note, the funding for the Sakai Internment curriculum came from the federal government, with a provision in the reparations component with a stipulation that part of the money be spent on public education. Marie Marrs is a gifted teacher who has always presented a multi-disciplinary approach with balance and has been a tremendous mentor to Island children on their path to seeking truth and deserves our gratitude and support for her continuing work.
Here are some things we can do that we hope you will take a moment to support:
1. Write the BISD and thank them for supporting Historic Truth. Encourage them to support the ongoing, in depth, Japanese American Internment curriculum. Please ask them for continued support for our gifted teacher, Marie Marrs, whose good work to explore education and deliver truth and appropriate multi-disciplinary studies have greatly benefited our students. Further, we encourage our school district to support in depth studies that uncover past US Govt. mistakes and to examine current events in depth that our students may become adept citizens who will make good choices for their country.
Please write:
Associate Supt., Faith Chapel — fchapel@bainbridge.wednet.edu
Bruce Weiland — bweiland@bainbridge.net
Susan Sivitz — ssivitz@yahoo.com
Cheryl Dale — cheryldale@qwest.net
Mary Curtis — MCPCurtis@aol.com
David Pollack — David.Pollock@ragenmackenzie.com
*2. Come to the School Board Meeting on Sept. 9th, High School Library, at 7 PM to thank them for supporting truth, etc., during public comment period which is at start of meeting. We encourage signs to support Historic Truth be taught. Lets make a big statement by packing the library!
3. Email me at klahern@msn.com for a petition we will deliver to the school board on Sept. 9th. Please share this email with your associates and ask them to sign their names. Jerry George is compiling the signatures and emails for us atmedia@altbuzz.org. Thank you, Jerry.
Should we let this die down of it's own accord? No. History has shown us we must be ever vigilante. We know it is up to us to cover our own backyards to keep Democracy and Truth intact.
Thank you for any help.
Kären Ahern 842-8381
Charlotta Rovelstad 780-0786
Recent Press
By Florangela Davila
Seattle Times staff reporter
Lessons to sixth-graders on the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II have inspired the objections of some island parents, who told the school board last week that the curriculum borders on “propaganda.”
Parent Mary Dombrowski and several others appeared before the school board last week to criticize “Leaving Our Island,” a social studies unit developed by long-time Sakai Intermediate School teacher Marie Marrs with a $17,000 grant from the Washington Civil Liberties Public Education program.
The parents charged that the internment is being taught out of context, spends too long on a single facet of World War II, and presents material too complex for the grade level.
The lessons, they said, have a bias against the United States government and the policies of the current administration.
“The events of 1942 are being used to criticize the Patriot Act,” said islander and former teacher Dombrowski, who made a 15-minute presentation to the board. “This teaching unit rises to the level of propaganda.”
The teaching unit was slated for two weeks last February but was expanded to a month of intermittent study.
It used “experiential” projects to explain the removal of the island’s residents of Japanese heritage during World War II.
Bainbridge residents were the first Japanese Americans to be removed inland when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 two months after Pearl Harbor; the order excluded people of Japanese descent from occupying “militarily sensitive” Pacific Coast areas.
While the exclusion has generally come to be seen as unjustified, recent revisionist history has been fueled by former Seattle Times columnist Michelle Malkin’s book “In Defense of Internment,” and David Lowman’s “MAGIC: The Untold Story of U.S. Intelligence and the Evacuation of Japanese Residents From The West Coast During WWII.”
The authors contend that the internment was justified in light of “a widespread domestic Japanese threat” by Japanese nationals and sympathizers.
Frank Kitamoto, president of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American community, who was present at the school board meeting Aug. 26, defended the Sakai curriculum.
The lessons included student interviews with islanders of Japanese descent who shared first-hand memories of the camps, and construction of a model of the huts at Manzanar, the relocation center to which most islanders were removed.
Students visited related historic island sites, read biographies and fiction and created a video on the internment.
“I think the main problem is (their) not seeing the goals and reasons to have this program at Sakai,” Kitamoto said of those objecting to the curriculum. “The real reason is to have students be comfortable with differences, to help them develop feelings of self-worth and self-identity.
“They see it as an attack on the (U.S.) government.”
Islander Beverly Robinson, who also attended the meeting, said the insularity of Japanese Americans may have contributed to the perception that they were a threat.
“They would not assimilate with the other nationalities, and that, in itself, will feed fear and distrust,” she said.
Kitamoto says he believes it was logical for the Japanese community to turn inward for support.
“The thing is not to let fear block relationships,” he said. “When we are fearful we tend to do things to protect ourselves and instill fear in others, rather than to see their viewpoints.”
The school board, while acknowledging that “Leaving Our Island” will likely be streamlined as the curriculum is refined, praised the program overall.
School board president Bruce Weiland drew the line at presenting a “balanced view” that might suggest that the removal was justified, pointing out that the United States government, through such actions as rescinding Executive Order 9066 and paying reparations to survivors has clearly indicated that it was not.
“At some point an idea becomes so much a part of our culture that we don’t question it,” Weiland said. “We’re not going to present a ‘balanced view’ on an issue like slavery, where there is no argument that it was anything other than wrong.”
Here is a related story from the SUN BAINBRIDGE ISLAND from Aug. 31, 2004
By Steven Gardner , Sun Staff
A 62-year-old debate about Japanese internment could result in a curriculum shift in Bainbridge Island schools.
A special social studies program for Sakai Intermediate School sixth-graders called "Leaving Our Island" is missing context and rises to the level of "propaganda," some parents say.
Their complaints will result in changes to the curriculum, but the class won't back away from its central idea that Japanese-American internment was a mistake.
The internment of Japanese-Americans, about two-thirds of whom were born in the United States, has generally become regarded as a U.S. overreaction to wartime hysteria, but there are notable dissenters from that belief. Newspaper columnist Michelle Malkin recently wrote "In Defense of Internment," a book that collects some of the reasons the internment decision was made.
Bainbridge Island's historic significance as the first place Japanese-Americans left their homes on their way to internment camps makes it a logical place to draw upon the event to teach history.
Social studies teacher Marie Marrs developed the curriculum and netted a $17,000 grant from the Washington Civil Liberties Education Program to offer the program to Sakai sixth-graders. It was taught during February as part of a U.S. history curriculum.
On Thursday, the Bainbridge Island School District's board of commissioners met to discuss the internment curriculum after parents complained about how it was being taught.
Mary Dombrowski, an island resident, shared letters she exchanged with Superintendent Ken Crawford and Sakai Principal Jo Vander Stoep. She argued the curriculum didn't provide the historical context surrounding President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which resulted in a war zone with a boundary line running through the middle of Washington and Oregon, along California's eastern boundary and into the southern part of Arizona.
About 110,000 Japanese-Americans ended up in internment camps as a letters she exchanged with Superintendent Ken Crawford and Sakai Principal Jo Vander Stoep. She argued the curriculum didn't provide the historical context surrounding President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which resulted in a war zone with a boundary line running through the middle of Washington and Oregon, along California's eastern boundary and into the southern part of Arizona.
About 110,000 Japanese-Americans ended up in internment camps as a result of the order. So did some Germans and Italians, though their numbers are disputed.
On March 30, 1942, Bainbridge Japanese-Americans were the first people forced from their homes as a result of the massive evacuation. There are plans for the former Eagledale ferry terminal site to host a memorial marking the exodus. At Thursday's meeting, Marrs showed a video of how the program had been formatted, including visits with Bainbridge residents who had been forced to leave their homes, field trips and reading assignments.
Several students in the video referred to the camps as "incarceration camps," and used terms such as "persecuted" and referred to the Japanese-Americans as having been torn from their homes.
"We have to speak up when civil rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution are trampled in the name of national security," one student said.
Dombrowski took issue with the curriculum's attempt to link Japanese internment with today's Patriot Act, saying it "rises to the level of propaganda."
Also at issue was the program's length. The grant stipulated the curriculum run two weeks, but the school spread it over a month.
Parents argued that sixth-graders are too young to take on such subject matter
Crawford's letter indicated that he might agree the program was too long and that it could stand to include more context. He did not back away from the assertion that the internment was a mistake.
Faith Chapel, associate superintendent, pointed to two presidential decisions that stated the U.S. government's position.
President Ford officially declared the evacuation "wrong" in 1976. In 1988, President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 in which $1.2 billion (about $20,000 per person) was given to surviving detainees.
Vander Stoep said she'll consider seeking the approval of the district's instructional materials committee for possible changes to the "Leaving Our Island" curriculum.
"As we plan for the coming years we'll certainly keep those recommendations in mind that we make it more concise and that we put it in better context," she said.
Reach reporter Steven Gardner at (206) 714-3003, (360) 779-3131 or at sgardner@thesunlink.com.
Dear Congressman Coble:
I was appalled at your inconsiderate and unhistorical remarks on the public airwaves concerning the Internment of Japanese American persons, both citizens and their families. President Reagan offered an apologetic closure on this subject, and concluded that history had corrected and clarified the record, to show that Japanese Americans had not in any instance acted disloyally. He accepted responsibility on behalf of the United States for mistakes made in the days of World War II which had caused hurt and shame to loyal Americans, while their family members in uniform distinguished themselves in defense of America.
You have ripped away the healing scab and, at a crucial time, caused uncertainty again whether Americans really include as loyal citizens and residents those who look or sound different, or present cultural aspects unfamiliar to the majority. I can only hope that you spoke without adequate preparation and in ignorance of the facts, and will take the earliest opportunity to withdraw your comments and take a stand on the side of history and American values. That alone would better qualify you for the responsibilities that lie ahead, to make credible contributions to the solution of questions of national security while maintaining commitment to American values.
I write as pastor of the Episcopal Church whose member, Walt Woodward, then editor of The Bainbridge Review, was the sole editor consistently to protest the Internment at its inception. Bainbridge Island was the first place Americans of Japanese ancestry were illegally separated from home, culture and livelihood. It is also a community to which they returned, because their neighbors remembered them as loyal fellow-citizens and bearers of a common American belief in the equality of all. Due process is an essential component of that belief. Congress has approved a study to designate the site of their departure as a reminder of that history and a challenge to Americans and people everywhere to maintain, even in times of stress, the principles which set us on a different road, a road away from the world's history of ignorance, intolerance and hate.
Your remarks, Congressman, remind me how important it is to be aware that our impressions and reactions of long ago, before we knew the truth of a situation, can return and damage our ability to respond adequately to the challenges of the present. Constant vigilance includes revising old reactions, so that the world will know us as an honorable people who live by our principles in all circumstances. The many Japanese Americans whom I have known exemplify for me the best of living out America's beliefs. I would welcome your learning how forgiving they can be when a person admits a mistake.
God bless America with the grace of living fully what we profess.
Sincerely,
(The Rev) Joseph Hickey-Tiernan
Rector of St Barnabas Episcopal Church
Committee Member: Nidoto Nai Yoni
2/5/03 [Seattle Times Article]
“The myth is still out there!” says Clarence Moriwaki. He refers to a remark made on February 4 by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.). The full text of an Associated Press story about it is shown below. The JACL and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee have responded.
HIGH POINT, N.C. —A congressman who heads a homeland-security subcommittee said on a radio call-in program that he agreed with the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
U.S. Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., made the remark Tuesday on WKZL-FM when a caller suggested Arabs in the United States should be confined.
Coble, chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security, said he didn't agree with the caller but did agree with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who established the internment camps.
"We were at war. They (Japanese Americans) were an endangered species," Coble said. "For many of these Japanese Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."
Like most Arab Americans today, Coble said, most Japanese Americans during World War II were not enemies of the United States. Still, he said, Roosevelt had to consider the nation's security.
"Some probably were intent on doing harm to us," he said, "just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."
"I'm disappointed that he really doesn't understand the impact of what he said," said Rep. Mike Honda, D-Calif., a Japanese American who spent his early childhood with his family in an internment camp in World War II.
"With his leadership position in Congress, that kind of lack of understanding can lead people down the wrong path."
The Japanese American Citizens League asked Coble to issue an apology, while the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee demanded that Coble explain his remarks.
It is "a sad day in our country's tradition when an elected official ... openly agrees with an unconstitutional and racist policy long believed to be one of the darkest moments of America's history," the group said in a statement.
Article by The Associated Press
Copyright (c) 2002 The Seattle Times Company
Your Life. Your Times.
The email address for Rep. Coble is howard.coble@mail.house.gov if you care to add your comments.
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