Building Empathy is a project of PEF and PUSD, with support from the California State Library and California Humanities
One year ago, in April 2024, 18 students from Blair and Pasadena High Schools alongside seven adults boarded a charter bus out of Pasadena for an overnight trip to Manzanar Historic National Site. The site, just a few hours north of Pasadena, is one of the 10 concentration camps that the U.S. government created in 1942 to incarcerate more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry.
For a year prior to the journey, PHS and Blair students studied the history of the injustice experienced by the Japanese community. Through a California Humanities grant, some of the Blair students taught middle-schoolers about that dark chapter in US history.
Learn more about the project by exploring this page.
Page Header Photo: Art by Pasadena High School student, Tina G.; Photo credit: Milly Correa Hernandez
Student Voice: Solidarity with La Raza
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Students Explore Dark Chapter of California History
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A Gift and an Inspiration to Me
— Banner photo of Liliana Valenzuela with student-teachers, DLIP instructor Jesus Cobian, PUSD administrator Jose Ortega, and PEF Student Engagement Manager, Sehba Sarwar; all photos by Kayte Deioma
IN THIS SECTION
What we hear!
“I had already known pretty much most things about the [Japanese American concentration] camps because my grandmother was interned at those camps…”
– Leo, ninth grader, Pasadena High School
“I wasn’t very aware of the Japanese concentration camps, so I learned with the students. I think it’s important to learn about issues that happen in our neighborhood, and this is really relevant.”
– Mayte Hernandez, English instructor, Pasadena High School
