Student Activity
War Relocation Authority

• Construct a timeline of events relating to the internment of the Japanese Americans. Supplement the timeline by including newspaper articles that deal with events highlighted in the timeline or include pictures.

• Look at a map and identify the location of the relocation centers in the United States. Discuss the significance of their location.

• Introduce the Koremotsu v. United States Supreme Court case. Explain the aspects of the case. How does this file fit into the framework of the information presented in the B-File?

• Have your class stage your own trial dealing with the War Relocation Authority. One group of the students should represent the United States government, the second groups representing a Japanese-American community and the third a panel of judges that must decide the case. Decide what the charges should be against the government or the interned Japanese Americans.

• Imagine that you and your family were forced to leave your home. Write a journal entry of what your feelings might be about leaving your home, neighborhood, school, friends, and the force that was making you leave. Then write about what your first day in the new location would be like. Who would be your friends? How would your family cope with the move? If you could only take one box of belongings (not including your clothing) what would you choose to take with you? Give five reasons for your choices.

• Write a play about what it would have been like to relocate into one of these centers.

• Write a letter to President Truman telling him of the contributions of the Nisei servicemen during World War II. Look at the lives of Tom Kawaguchi, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and founder of the National Japanese Historical Society, Ted Tsukiyama, veteran of the Military Intelligence Service (MIS), the 100th Infantry Battalion and the Nisei MIS language school graduates. A book that chronicles the service of the Nisei in the second world war is written by Lyn Crost entitled, Honor By Fire: Japanese Americans at War in Europe and the Pacific (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1994).