Japanese Relocation : U.S. Office of War Information :
U.S. government-produced film defending the World War II internment of Japanese American citizens.
15: World War II
Rumor of Attack on Pearl Harbor
Feb 1941 Memo from US Chief of Naval Operations regarding attack on Pearl Harbor
Lesson 1: Sources of Discord, 1945-1946 | EDSITEment
This lesson will examine the U.S.-Soviet disagreements regarding Germany and Eastern Europe. Students will read excerpts from the agreements reached at Yalta and Potsdam, then, based on later documents, will study how these arrangements unraveled. Finally they will look at two opposing American views of the Soviet Union and of the strategy that the United States should use in dealing with it.
Lesson 1: The Growth of U.S.-Japanese Hostility, 1915-1932 | EDSITEment
Using contemporary documents, students in this lesson will explore the rise of animosity between the United States and Japan. It will begin with Japan's "Twenty-One Demands" on China during World War I, and will continue through the Manchurian Incident of 1931.
Lesson 1: Turning the Tide in the Pacific, 1941-1943 | EDSITEment
This lesson plan will focus on the overall strategies pursued by the Japanese and the Allies in the initial months of World War II in Asia and the Pacific. By examining military documents and consulting an interactive map of the Pacific theater, students will compare what each side hoped to accomplish with what actually happened. Also, students will have an opportunity to read personal accounts by those who fought in the Pacific War, giving them a glimpse of what conditions on the battlefront were actually like.
Lesson 3: Japan's "Southern Advance" and the March toward War, 1940-1941 | EDSITEment
In this lesson students will examine primary documents and maps to discover why Japan embarked on its "southern advance." They will also consider the U.S. response to this new policy, and how it contributed to war between the United States and Japan.
Lesson 3: U.S. Neutrality and the War in Europe, 1939-1940 | EDSITEment
hrough a study of contemporary documents, students learn about the difficult choices faced by the Roosevelt administration during the first fifteen months of World War II, culminating in the decision to provide direct military aid to Great Britain.
Lesson 4: FDR and the Lend-Lease Act | EDSITEment
This lesson shows students how broadly Lend-Lease empowered the federal government-particularly the President-and asks students to investigate how FDR promoted the program in speeches and then in photographs.
Lesson 4: Victory in the Pacific, 1943-1945 | EDSITEment
This lesson will guide students through the military campaigns of the Pacific theater, tracing the path of the Allied offensives. Through an examination of historical documents and the use of an interactive map, students will gain an understanding of what the Allies were trying to accomplish, and why. Moreover, they will consider the controversial issue of the use of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Lesson 4: The Failure of Diplomacy, September - December 1941 | EDSITEment
Students in this lesson will put themselves in the shoes of U.S. and Japanese diplomats in the final months of 1941, earnestly trying to reach a settlement that will avoid war. Through the use of primary documents and an interactive map and timeline, they will consider whether there was any reasonable chance of preventing the outbreak of World War II in the Pacific.
A People's War?
from Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States". Teachers using this should take a look at Sam Wineberg's take on Zinn's book. Part of the article deals specifically with this chapter of "People's History" http://www.aft.org/periodical/american-educator/winter-2012-2013/undue-certainty
WWII 1943 Marine Corps Comic Book
50 Vintage STD Propaganda Posters
Primary Sources: Language and Pocket Guides
Millions of US servicemen and women experienced this culture shock when they were stationed overseas during World War II. To assist in making the transition easier, the United States military issued pocket guides, which taught soldiers about the customs, geography, language and other cultural details of each country from The National WWII Museum
World War II Interactive Map
Year by year progress of the war is helpful, as is the pop-up charts that show military and civilians death totals and % of population.
What the USA looks like to Germany in 1944
Lots of detail in this view of American through the eyes of German Propaganda in 1944. Though need more citing information to certify authenticity.
Japanese American Internment during World War II - Primary Source Set | Teacher Resources - Library of Congress
Library of Congress collection of images and other materials, including analysis tools and guides for teachers
As We May Think - Vannevar Bush - The Atlantic
As WWII came to an end, Vannevar Bush wondered where scientists would direct their research now that the war was over. His suggestion is that they target their efforts on a system that could store, retrieve and communicate research information. His idea of a "memex" in 1945 predicts the modern cell phone. Doug Englebart came across this article and sparked his interest in "Augmenting Human Intellect"
The owner of the memex, let us say, is interested in the origin and properties
of the bow and arrow. Specifically he is studying why the short Turkish bow was
apparently superior to the English long bow in the skirmishes of the Crusades.
He has dozens of possibly pertinent books and articles in his memex. First he
runs through an encyclopedia, finds an interesting but sketchy article, leaves
it projected. Next, in a history, he finds another pertinent item, and ties the
two together. Thus he goes, building a trail of many items. Occasionally he
inserts a comment of his own, either linking it into the main trail or joining
it by a side trail to a particular item. When it becomes evident that the
elastic properties of available materials had a great deal to do with the bow,
he branches off on a side trail which takes him through textbooks on elasticity
and tables of physical constants. He inserts a page of longhand analysis of his
own. Thus he builds a trail of his interest through the maze of materials
available to him.
This is a description of what happens on the internet every day. Amazing foresight though he did not predict that this same device could be used to look at pictures of cats
There is a new profession of trail blazers, those who find delight in the task
of establishing useful trails through the enormous mass of the common record.
The inheritance from the master becomes, not only his additions to the world's
record, but for his disciples the entire scaffolding by which they were
erected.
This is how we can make students modern historians - they make the links through the material and tell us why.
The Godfather - Vannevar Bush
The Manhattan Project, Silicon Valley, The World Wide Web. Wherever you look in the information age, Vannevar Bush was there first. This Wired article provides biographic information. Although most students and teachers see technology growth in radio, radar, and atomic weapons in World War II, the most personal computer began in the 40s also
World War II in Color: The Italian Campaign and the Road to Rome | LIFE.com
As much as the pictures alone show students the brutality and destruction of war, the fact that the pictures are in color gives students an immediacy of connection with them. As we live our lives in "living color" seeing these pictures helps one understand that those people of the past whose live we study in history lived through their own lives in the present also and "in living color".
The myth of the good war | Geoffrey Wheatcroft | The Guardian
Teachers looking for secondary source readings for students would be well-served by considering this essay that compares our impressions of the first and second world war - this shows history in the making. The thesis of the article is : Our year of remembrance has exaggerated the tragic futility of the first world war and preserved the dangerous idea that the second was noble and heroic
World War II in Photos - The Atlantic
Why not have students review these photos and tie them to themes you provide or have them generate their own themes? Have them choose just 10 from the 900 and explain why their subset best exemplifies the war.
This series of entries was published weekly on TheAtlantic.com from June 19 through October 30, 2011, running every Sunday morning for 20 weeks. In this collection of 900 photos spread over 20 essays, I tried to explore the events of the war, the lives of the people fighting at the front and working back home, and the effects of the trauma on everyday activity.
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Watch World War II Rage Across Europe in a 7 Minute Time-Lapse Film: Every Day From 1939 to 1945 | Open Culture
The seven minute video that shows the borders of Europe changing throughout World War II may be a nice add-on to another lesson or just window dressing as students come in the room. Yet taking a look at just the spring of 1940 alone should give student a sense of how quickly the war changing in those months.
Orson Welles' War of the Worlds panic myth: The infamous radio broadcast did not cause a nationwide hysteria.
Great lesson for WWII in US History class - set the context of Munich appeasement and fear of world war, then tell the story of the broadcast and the panic. Students job? - find out if reports of the panic were valid - how would you check? End with the media fight between radio and newspapers. What are implications for the internet?
Related material can also be found at the National Archives collection of letters written to the FCC after the broadcast (https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2003/fall/war-of-worlds.html). In this National Archive articles it states that "Of the 1,770 people who wrote to the main CBS station about the broadcast, 1,086 were complimentary. In addition, 91 percent of the letters received by the Mercury Theatre staff were positive. And roughly 40 percent of the letters sent to the FCC were supportive of the broadcast."
Eisenhower D - Day failure message just in case
Legendary photographer Ansel Adams visited a Japanese internment camp in 1943, here’s what he saw - The Washington Post
In 1943, Ansel Adams set out to document life inside the Japanese-American internment camp at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California. It was a departure for Adams, who at the time was known as a landscape photographer and not for social-documentary work. When Adams offered this collection of images to the Library of Congress, he said, “The purpose of my work was to show how these people, suffering under a great injustice, and loss of property, businesses and professions, had overcome the sense of defeat and dispair [sic] by building for themselves a vital community in an arid (but magnificent) environment….All in all, I think this Manzanar Collection is an important historical document, and I trust it can be put to good use.”
We're gonna have to slap that dirty litle jap - YouTube
This Carson Robison song demonstrates the extreme of racist propaganda in World War II. This 2:40 song can serve as a intro to a class or in a presentation.
When Dr. Seuss Took On Adolf Hitler - The Atlantic
Students with fond memories of every March 2 between Kindergarten and 4th grade will be intrigued to see this side of Dr. Suess. Teachers can easily include these in their presentations or for analysis as instructional material. It might even be worthwhile including these cartoons without mentioning their author to see if students make the connection first.
This WWII women's dorm was the hippest spot in town
This photo essay can serve as a means to have students explore the social change that comes to The United States through World War II. It includes photos from Arlington Farms in 1943, a housing development built outside Washington, DC to house thousands of government workers.