Building Empathy is a project of PEF and PUSD, with support from the California State Library and California Humanities

Lesson Plans

Newspapers, Speeches

As part of the Building Empathy project, Ms. Cobian used the graphic novel Nos Llamaron Enemigo that’s based on the life of George Takei as the anchor text for the semester. Use questions from this reading guide to debrief and check for understanding.

Prior to starting any activity, create a KWL chart of what students already know about Japan, Japanese-American culture and their experience during WWII. Chart can be done individually or in small groups.

Ask & display the following questions to guide students:

  • What do you already know about Japanese-Americans (in the United States)?
  • What comes to mind when you hear the phrase “Pearl Harbor”?
  • Have you ever heard or learned about Executive Order 9066?

Ask students to share and record their answers in the K section of a chart for the whole class. Add new information to the L section of a chart for the whole class as the semester progresses.

Watch first documentary and debrief: “Three Views of Manzanar” | Lost LA | Season 4, Episode 2 | KCET

Watch second documentary and debrief: “From Little Tokyo to Crenshaw” | Lost LA | Season 5, Episode 5 | KCET

Field trip to Little Tokyo: Students will go on a field trip to Little Tokyo to learn about the historical locations and then go to the Japanese American National Museum to learn more about the Japanese-American experience during WWII. Watch and discuss Takei’s Ted Talk video, “Why I love a country that once betrayed me.”

Source: Library of Congress, Serial and Government Publications Division

Midterm Task: Students will write a persuasive essay about a contemporary social justice issue which will include a variety of sources. Students will present their work to the class and to a live audience.

Final Task: Students will create their own newspaper based on The Rohwer Outpost images and what they have learned about the Japanese-American experience. Analyze The Rohwer Outpost images and write an article or opinion piece for the newspaper based on what they have read in the graphic novel Nos llamaron enemigo by George Takei. Use the Outpost images as a guide and to format their own work so that it looks like a newspaper of that time period.

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IN THIS SECTION

What we hear!

“To be completely honest, I did not know a lot about the history of the Executive Order [9066], and how they lived during those times. But I think it was a really good experience to see first-hand from people that were there and from the relatives [of survivors], so they could explain to us about how hard it was for them to get through that time…”
—Diego, Blair International Baccalaureate School