Home On the Range

“Home on the Range” appears to have been written in 1885 by a group of prospectors in a cabin near Leadville, Colorado. It was popular throughout the Southwest in the 1880s and 1890s and is now recognized as the state song of Kansas.

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

How often at night when the heavens are bright
I see the light of those flickering stars
Have I laid there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of love

The red man was pressed from this part of the west

It's not likely he'll ever return

To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever

His flickering campfires still burn

Home, home on the range

Where the deer and the antelope play

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

1. Do you think the settlement of this region had a more positive effect or a more negative effect on the person or people who wrote this song? How can you tell?

2. Do you think the settlement of this region had the same effect on all the different groups of people who lived there? Why or why not?

Was Roy Rogers, 'King of the Cowboys,' from the West? Does Ohio have a State song?

Here is a picture of my Grammy Ulrey, Roy Rogers, and his famous horse Trigger circa 1943.
Giddy Up!

Reconstruction: Success or Failure?

During the 1870s, more than a dozen African American men, many of whom had been born into slavery, were elected to the U.S. Congress. It was a triumph of our founding ideals of equality, justice, and the pursuit of happiness!

It was a period that ended all too quickly.

When neither candidate in the 1876 presidential election secured enough votes in the Electoral College to be declared winner, a deal was struck. Southern Democrats agreed to back Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes; in exchange, the federal troops who had protected black voters were withdrawn from the South. Just a few years later, the Supreme Court struck down the Civil Rights Bill of 1875. Black voting rights were gradually stripped away, and black representation in Congress faded.

Reconstruction was over, and the Jim Crow era of segregation began.

1) What were the ultimate results of Reconstruction? Do you think it was successful?

2) In what ways were freed people better off?

3) In what ways weren't they?

4) How did the 13th, 14th and 15th amendment advance rights for African Americans?

5) How did Jim Crow and Black Codes reverse them?

Gone With the Wind

Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It tells a story of the American Civil War and Reconstruction era from a white Southern point of view.

The film received ten Academy Awards (eight competitive, two honorary), a record that stood for 20 years.

1) What does the title of the film mean?

2) What challenges did the South face following the Civil War?

3) How would the South rebuild?

4) Was Reconstruction a success or failure?

5) Why is the film controversial today?

Want to watch the rest of the movie?

Plessy vs. Ferguson

Sure you've heard of Homer Simpson;  but who was Homer Plessy?

What were Jim Crow Laws and why was this man not allowed to sit in a 'whites only' railroad car?

This video is about the history of civil rights and Plessy v. Ferguson from 1896. The 14th Amendment is examined as is the case.

How did railcar attendants know Plessy was black?

What was the precedent of 'Separate but Equal?'

With Malice Toward None....

How could a nation torn apart by civil war put itself back together? That was the question facing all Americans in 1865. In his second inaugural address, Abraham Lincoln spoke of healing the wounds on both sides of the conflict:

With malice [hatred] toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan; to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

—Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 1865

Reconstruction

Have you ever broken something and tried to put back together again? Was it the same as before? After the North defeated the South in the Civil War, politicians faced the task of putting the divided country back together. There was great debate about how severely the former Confederate states should be punished for leaving the Union. With the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, it was up to President Andrew Johnson to try to reunite former enemies.

Can you help him re-assemble the pieces?

What does the finished image look like? What can it teach us about Reconstruction?

Reconstruction and 1876: Crash Course US History #22

EXPOSED: Abraham Lincoln Birthplace Cabin

Abraham Lincoln was born in the cabin he built with his own two hands.

Is Fact sometimes stranger than Fiction?

What is the "naughty little secret" at the heart of "good history?"

In Lies Across America, James W. Loewen continues his mission, begun in the award-winning Lies My Teacher Told Me, of overturning the myths and misinformation that too often pass for American history. This is a one-of-a-kind examination of historic sites all over the country where history is literally written on the landscape, including historical markers, monuments, historic houses, forts, and ships.

What do our local historic markers choose to commemorate?

What stories do we wish they'd forget?

The Truth About Abraham Lincoln

"History remembers the battle but forgets the blood."

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin, where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his suffering mother's bedside. She's been stricken with something the old-timers call "Milk Sickness."

"My baby boy..." she whispers before dying.

Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire.

When the truth becomes known to young Lincoln, he writes in his journal, "henceforth my life shall be one of rigorous study and devotion. I shall become a master of mind and body. And this mastery shall have but one purpose..." Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House.

While Abraham Lincoln is widely lauded for saving a Union and freeing millions of slaves, his valiant fight against the forces of the undead has remained in the shadows for hundreds of years. That is, until Seth Grahame-Smith stumbled upon The Secret Journal of Abraham Lincoln, and became the first living person to lay eyes on it in more than 140 years.

Using the journal as his guide and writing in the grand biographical style of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough, Seth has reconstructed the true life story of our greatest president for the first time-all while revealing the hidden history behind the Civil War and uncovering the role vampires played in the birth, growth, and near-death of our nation.

Ten score and three years ago, a man was sent to Earth to destroy slavery, unite a broken country and vanquish vicious vampires.

Abraham Lincoln was not only our 16th president, but he was also on a lifelong mission to destroy these undead, blood sucking devils.

But the vampires that the Great Emancipator sets out to destroy are not your teenage sister's sparkly, lovesick, whining vampires.

Early in his life, Lincoln discovered that vampires have been a part of American history since the first European settler hopped off a boat and that the slave trade keeps vampires under control for food.

Lincoln then made a vow: "I hereby resolve to kill every vampire in America."

The future president tried to do just that. He drives stakes into a few of the vampires here. He cuts some of their heads off there. He even lights a few on fire. Up and down the Mississippi, he chops through the undead like he's clearing a forest for some creepy railroad.

At least that's the picture painted by Seth Grahame-Smith in his novel "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter."  The book became a best seller and a blockbuster movie in part because it is an interesting cross between fact and fiction.  

But the sad truth is that what most of us know about American History comes from Hollywood.

1) Is Seth Grahame-Smith’s book a Primary or Secondary source?

2) What about the Journal his work is based on? Primary or Secondary?

3) How much of this work is fact?  Fiction?

4) What proof do we have? What proof do we need? Is it credible?

5) Why did we really fight the Civil War?  What was the outcome?

Bill of Rights

Ask Americans what the Constitution’s most important feature is and most will say it’s the guarantees of liberty enshrined in the Bill of Rights. In this episode, Sagal explores the history of the Bill of Rights and addresses several stories — ripped from the headlines — involving freedom of speech, freedom of religion and right to privacy.

4) How is the 'Bill of Rights' so important and unique?

5) Should there be limits to our freedoms? Explain your answer with examples from the video.

Creating the Constitution

Following the Revolutionary War most Americans did not want to return to rule by a monarch, but they did need an effective government. The challenge was deciding how that governtment should be structured.

What was it like in the room where it happened?

Learn more about the Constitution, the compromises, and it's ratification.

The Constitutional Convention opened on May 25, 1787. Delegates from every state but Rhode Island gathered in the room where the Declaration of Independence had been signed 11 years before. Although Congress had instructed them to revise and not replace the Articles of Confederation, many delegates were already convinced that a new constitution was needed. Through months of debate the delegates would work out this plan of government and then set it forth in a document called the Constitution of the United States. 

Imagine you are a delegate to the Convention. Read Chapter 6 Section 4 and then answer these questions on your paper, providing at least 3 reasons from the reading that support your answer:

1) Should we ratify the Constitution? Why/not?

2)What is the proper role of the National Government? 

3)  Would you have been a Federalist or Anti-Federalist? Why? 

What Comes Next? - Hamilton

 

 Preamble Song:  "We the people... In order to form a more perfect Union..."

What are the founding ideals of America found in these documents?

Northwest Ordinance

Declaration of Independence

Articles of Confederation

US Constitution 
Bill of Rights

TAKE THE SURVEY

Do You See What I See?

Concentrate on this picture for at least 30 seconds then look away and write down everything that you saw.  Share with the person next to you.  Did you see the same things?  How is this like History?

What is taking place in this scene? Where did this event take place? How Many of these famous 'Founding Fathers" can you identify? Did this event even actually happen as it is shown?

Is this painting 'Bad History' as Adams called it?  What did he mean when he says the 'true'  history of the American Revolution is lost....   forever?

John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence is a 12-by-18-foot oil-on-canvas painting in the United States Capitol Rotunda that depicts the presentation of the draft of the Declaration of Independence to Congress. It was based on a much smaller version of the same scene, presently held by the Yale University Art Gallery.[1] Trumbull painted many of the figures in the picture from life and visited Independence Hall as well to depict the chamber where the Second Continental Congress met. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned in 1817, purchased in 1819, and placed in the rotunda in 1826.

Is this painting a 'primary' or 'secondary' source.  What is the difference?

Adams & Jefferson were the only two Founding Fathers still alive when Trumbull's painting was completed.  When did they die?

What was David McCullough's historical interpretation of John Adams?

What do you think the Founding Fathers would say if they could talk to us today?

What Is History? (and why should we study it?)

What happened long ago shapes how we live today.  What Dr. King said on that hot August day in 1963 made another point: we are not prisoners of the past.  If we can dream of a better tomorrow, it lies in our power to shape the history to come.

Read Chapter 1 and complete the Notebook Guide activity for each section.

Who Is America?

The study of American History is not just about memorizing events and dates.  It is about the ideals and values we hold dear, and the struggle of the American People who fought so hard to defend those values. Presdients like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln certainly had a profound impact on our History, but America wouldn't 'be' without everyday people like you and me!

Who are we as Americans?

What are the ideals and values that tie us together as Americans?

How have we struggled to live up to those ideals and values over time?

The 60's

There has never been a decade quite like the sixties; the diversity, conflicts, hope, anger, the music. The 60s decade was a decade of change. Not only were those changes evident in pop culture, music, & fashions;  they changed the course of history.

As you watch the film in class read the corresponding sections in the text:

41.3 Marriage Families and a 'Baby Boom'

44  Civil Rights Revolution: "Like A Mighty Stream"

45.1 Redefining Equality: From Black Power to Affirmative Action

47 The Age of Camelot

49 Emergence of a Counterculture

50 - The United States Gets Involved in Vietnam

51.4 Growing Opposition to the War

Answer these questions in your final essay.  One paragraph per answer.

I. Why did the counterculture fall apart?

II. Were the 60's good or bad for America? Why?

III.  What lessons did the 60's teach us?

IV,  Which character in the film did you relate to most?  If you were them what would you have done differently?

V. Would you have wanted to live during the 60's?  Why or Why not?

  

Women Demand Equality: NOW!

 

In 1966, the National Organization for Women established that a key goal of the feminist movement was the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, a proposed Constitutional amendment guaranteeing equal rights for women. It had been introduced in Congress in 1923, then passed in 1972 with the condition that 38 states had to ratify it for it to become part of the Constitution. Support was bipartisan and ratification seemed like a sure thing, needing only eight more states.

Then came a housewife and mother of six from St. Louis named Phyllis Schlafly. She believed that the amendment would damage the role of women and the American family and had to be stopped. She took her cause on the road to political rallies, TV talk shows and state assemblies, where she plied legislators with fresh bread and pie.

By 1977, she had built a coalition – rooted in evangelical Christians, Catholics and political conservatives – that eventually stopped the E.R.A. three states short of ratification.

That coalition also provided a base for Ronald Reagan’s presidential victory in 1980, and established Schlafly’s reputation among friends and foes as one of the most effective political organizers in modern American history.

Despite Schlafly’s victory against the ERA, many of the causes she railed against – abortion rights, same-sex marriage, women serving in the military – become realities of American life, protected by law. But Schlafly continued to plead her cause, right up until she died at age 92 in 2016.

The ERA has not passed, despite recent attempts to revive it.

1) What were the arguments for and against the Equal Rights Amendment?
2) What strategies were the most effective at defeating the E.R.A.?
3) How did the defeat of the E.R.A. relate to the rise of conservatism in the 1980s?
4) How was the concept of American womanhood being redefined throughout the 1970s?
5) The video makes it clear that not all American women held the same beliefs about the role of women within society during the 1970s. Why do you think women in the U.S. held different perspectives on the Equal Rights Amendment? What does this debate reveal to us today about the unique pressures women faced in the 1970s?

Civil Rights: Like a Mighty Stream

 

Brown v. Board of Education inspired hopes that African Americans could achieve equal rights in American society. After decades of segregation and discrimination, African Americans were willing to take incredible risks to stand up against unfair laws. But just what types of risks would they and other civil rights activists be willing to take? Read the seven statements that follow, and record whether you believe each is true or false.

The Civil Rights Movement: True or False? 1. On the first day of a bus boycott to protest segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, 90 percent of the city's African American riders stayed off the buses. 2. Leaders of the Montgomery busy boycott brought their case before the Supreme Court, which declared segregation unconstitutional. 3. On the first day of desegregation at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, nine African Americans students faced an angry White mob that tried to stop them from attending school. 4. After college students staged a "sit-in" at an all-White lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina, to protest segregation, the city became the first large Southern city to end segregation. 5. The protests led by children in Birmingham, Alabama, were considered successful because police arrested few participants. 6. Around 250,000 people traveled from around the country to Washington, D.C., to participate in a 1963 demonstration protesting racial discrimination. 7. In 1964, Freedom Summer participants in Mississippi faced violence, including beatings, bombings, and shooting, and at least six people were murdered.

TV Values

What cultural norms and values did television reflect during the 1950s? 

What cultural values does television programming reflect today?

Leave It To Beaver is a show remembered by some as an example of a simpler time in America. A time before today's modern anything-goes mentality and it's culture of crassness. A time when traditional family values ruled the day. It is remembered by others as seemingly taking place in an alternate universe that bore no resemblance to reality evenwhen it was new.

I watched a lot of Leave it to Beaver in my childhood, as it was on every afternoon in re-runs, but it wasn’t until seeing it in adulthood that I appreciated to what extent the show does not merit its reputation as a phony part of a repressive Fifties monoculture. Yes, it depicts a world that probably never existed, and yes, like most of what was on television at the time, it under-represents diversity. There are no homosexuals (although who can be entirely sure about Mr. Rutherford?), few black people, and very limited controversy. Within its contained world, however, Leave it to Beaver promotes honesty and personal responsibility over the values of social status or self-interest. It also overturns (usually, anyway) the assumption that dishonesty is an accepted, and even expected, mode of behavior.

The Prisoners Dilemma

 During the Cold War the opposing alliances of NATO and the Warsaw Pact both had the choice to arm or disarm. From each side's point of view, disarming whilst their opponent continued to arm would have led to military inferiority and possible annihilation. Conversely, arming whilst their opponent disarmed would have led to superiority. If both sides chose to arm, neither could afford to attack the other, but at the high cost of developing and maintaining a nuclear arsenal. If both sides chose to disarm, war would be avoided and there would be no costs. Although the 'best' overall outcome is for both sides to disarm, the rational course for both sides is to arm, and this is indeed what happened. 'Mutually Assured Destruction' was the idea that waging war would be so destructive to both sides that neither could possibly win. Both sides poured enormous resources into military research and armament in a war of attrition for the next thirty years until reform in the Soviet Union caused ideological differences to abate.

The Cold War and arms race can be modeled as a Prisoner's Dilemma. The Prisoner's Dilemma is the story of two criminals who have been arrested for a heinous crime and are being interrogated separately. Each knows that if neither of them talks, the case against them is weak and they will be convicted and punished for lesser charges. If this happens, each will get 20 years in prison with the possibility of parole. If both 'rat' on each other, its a slam dunk case for the prosecution and they both face death sentences. If only one person 'rats' and testifies against the other, the one who did not cooperate will get the death sentence while the other will go free.

1) What would you do? Why?

2) What did your partner do? What was the result?

3) What was the surprising outcome of the Hollywood version we watched in class?

4) What is M.A.D. and how has it kept us safe from nuclear annihilation?

5) What are the risks of nuclear war in the future if more countries get the A-bomb?

How is this famous variation different from our class example? What was the surprising outcome?

Whatever happened to the 'Daisy Girl' from the 1960's commercial?

Zero Sum Game

The friendliness of Tic-tac-toe games makes them ideal as a pedagogical tool for teaching the concepts of good sportsmanship and the branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the searching of game trees. It is straightforward to write a computer program to play Tic-tac-toe perfectly, to enumerate the 765 essentially different positions (the state space complexity), or the 26,830 possible games up to rotations and reflections (the game tree complexity) on this space.

An early variant of Tic-tac-toe was played in the Roman Empire, around the first century BC. It was called Terni Lapilli and instead of having any number of pieces, each player only had three, thus they had to move them around to empty spaces to keep playing. The game's grid markings have been found chalked all over Rome. However, according to Claudia Zaslavsky's book Tic Tac Toe: And Other Three-In-A Row Games from Ancient Egypt to the Modern Computer, Tic-tac-toe could originate back to ancient Egypt.^[1] Another closely related ancient game is Three Men's Morris which is also played on a simple grid and requires three pieces in a row to finish.^[2]

The different names of the game are more recent. The first print reference to "Noughts and crosses", the British name, appeared in 1864. The first print reference to a game called "tick-tack-toe" occurred in 1884, but referred to "a children's game played on a slate, consisting in trying with the eyes shut to bring the pencil down on one of the numbers of a set, the number hit being scored".

Use the Tic Tac Toe handouts at the front of the room to challenge your classmates and then answer these questions:

1) What strategies did you use to win?

2) Why does Tic Tac Toe lose its appeal the more you play?

3) Is Tic Tac Toe an example of a Zero Sum Game?

4) What comparisons can we make between Tic Tac Toe and Global Thermal Nuclear War?

5) What is the only way to win?


Today gamblers can challenge a Tic Tac Toe Playing Chicken.

Can you beat the bird?

War Games

WarGames follows David Lightman, a high school student who unwittingly hacks into WOPR (War Operations Planned Response), a United States military supercomputer programmed to predict possible outcomes of nuclear war. Lightman gets WOPR to run a nuclear war simulation, originally believing it to be a computer game. The simulation causes a national nuclear missile scare and nearly starts World War III.

The movie illustrates the very real fear of an 'imminent' nuclear attack during the late Cold War and teaches a valuable lesson in the end.

How was High School different in 1983?

How have computers and the internet changed our lives since then?

Would you like to play the game?

Doomsday Clock

The Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face, maintained since 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disaster. Originally, the Clock, which hangs on a wall in the Bulletin's office in the University of Chicago, represented an analogy for the threat of global nuclear war; however, since 2007 it has also reflected climate change. The most recent officially announced setting—three minutes to midnight (11:57)—was made in January 2015 due to "[un]checked climate change, global nuclear weapons modernizations, and outsized nuclear weapons arsenals". This setting was retained in January 2016.

When was the clock closest to the End of the World?

When was the clock the farthest back?

Where is the clock set at now?

Why do we hope the Russians loved their children too?

Is it the End of the World As We Know It?

What can we do to turn back time?

The Wall

WHAT IN THE WORLD?

Within a short period of time after the war, living conditions in West Germany and East Germany became distinctly different. With the help and support of its occupying powers, West Germany set up a capitalist society and experienced such a rapid growth of their economy that it became known as the "economic miracle." With hard work, individuals living in West Germany were able to live well, buy gadgets and appliances, and to travel as they wished. Nearly the opposite was true in East Germany. Since the Soviet Union had viewed their zone as a spoil of war, the Soviets pilfered factory equipment and other valuable assets from their zone and shipped them back to the Soviet Union.

When East Germany became its own country, it was under the direct influence of the Soviet Union and thus a Communist society was established. In East Germany, the economy dragged and individual freedoms were severely restricted. By the late 1950s, many people living in East Germany wanted out. No longer able to stand the repressive living conditions of East Germany, they would pack up their bags and head to West Berlin. Although some of them would be stopped on their way, hundreds of thousands of others made it across the border. Once across, these refugees were housed in warehouses and then flown to West Germany. Many of those who escaped were young, trained professionals. By the early 1960s, East Germany was rapidly losing both its labor force and its population. Having already lost 2.5 million people by 1961, East Germany desperately needed to stop this mass exodus.

The obvious leak was the easy access East Germans had to West Berlin. With the support of the Soviet Union, there had been several attempts to simply take over West Berlin in order to eliminate this exit point. Although the Soviet Union even threatened the United States with the use of nuclear weapons over this issue, the United States and other Western countries were committed to defending West Berlin. Desperate to keep its citizens, East Germany decided to build a wall to prevent them from crossing the border.

WATCH THE MOVIE HERE

 How was the Wall both a physical and ideological barrier?

Silver Parachute

We are probably all familiar with the Silver Parachutes from Suzanne Collin's The Hunger Games.

The parachutes bearing meds or food float down, courtesy of Panem sponsors, and they are considered last-minute, unforeseen gifts.

What would your 'Silver Parachute' bring?  Who would sponsor you?

Post War Germany was divided into three sections--the Allied part was controlled by the United States, Great Britain and France, and another part by the Soviet Union. The city of Berlin, although located in the eastern Soviet half, was also divided into four sectors --West Berlin occupied by Allied interests and East Berlin occupied by Soviets. In June 1948, the Soviet Union attempted to control all of Berlin by cutting surface traffic to and from the city of West Berlin. Starving out the population and cutting off their business was their method of gaining control. As part of the Marshall Plan the Truman administration reacted with a continual daily airlift which brought much needed food and supplies into the city of West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift lasted until the end of September of 1949---although on May 12, 1949, the Soviet government yielded and lifted the blockade.

How did the airlift affect West German attitudes toward the United States and 'contain' the spread of Communism?

Imagine you are a child in Postwar West Berlin.  Write a 'Thank You' like the ones in the story to "Uncle Wiggly Wings."

Does the End Justify the Means?

The survivors of the atomic bombing were scarred for life, mentally and physically. No passage of time, however long, can relieve their memories. The scars on their faces, hands, and legs bear witness to that. In the vicissitudes of the last forty years, they must have struggled with recurring memories of their fears. The event at Hiroshima did not end in 1945; but began a new historical era leading toward the twenty-first century. It is certain that Hiroshima still exists in each one of us.

Given that the Atomic Bomb literally vaporized thousands of people its amazing that anything survived. These items found amidst the ruins of Hiroshima offer a startling reminder of the destructiveness of the bomb; not just on buildings and bridges but on real people.

1) What did you learn from listening to the survivors?

2)Was the attack on Hiroshima a crime against humanity?

3) Does this story change your original opinion about the bomb? Why/ not?

4) How many nuclear attacks have happened since?

5) Why are these stories and images important in preventing future nuclear attacks?

Mother Do You Think They'll Drop the Bomb?

The United States government secretly spent billions of dollars on a program code-named the Manhattan Project.  Its highest national priority: developing an atomic bomb.  The project was encouraged by Albert Einstein himself and led by J Robert Oppenheimer.   In a barren desert in New Mexico, on the morning of July 16, 1945,  the bomb was tested.  The flash of light could be seen 180 miles away.

President Truman did not agonize over the decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. For the President abstract ethical issues did not outweigh very real American lives and an opportunity to end the war. Later some historians would condemn Truman's decision. What would you have done?

"Little Boy" was the codename for the type of atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay, piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., commander of the 509th Composite Group of the United States Army Air Forces. It was the first atomic bomb to be used in warfare. TheHiroshima bombing was the second artificial nuclear explosion in history, after the Trinity test, and the first uranium-based detonation. It exploded with an energy of approximately 15 kilotons of TNT (63 TJ). The bomb caused significant destruction to the city of Hiroshima.

Did the pilots regret their role in the mission?  How would they live with the guilt?

Did the Japanese immediately surrender? What happened next?

Bushido

 How do you defeat an enemy who will not surrender?

There are countless stories of the Japanese 'kamakazi' pilots who would rather die themselves than give up. On Iwo Jima, a 5-mile-long desolate island rock 650 miles southeast of Tokyo, more than 23,000 marines became casualties.  The fight for Okinawa was even deadlier as many Japanese troops readily killed themselves. The Japanese fought by a code they thought was right: 'Bushido' The way of the Samurai warrior.

 How was this code different from the more Western idea of 'Chivalry?'

 Who was Hiroo Onoda?

 Who would win:  Knight vs. Samurai?

Word Power

There is no stronger bond of friendship than a mutual enemy.

-Frankfort Moore

At a time when America's best cryptographers were falling short, the Navajo Indians  were able to fashion the most ingenious and successful code in military history. They drew upon their proud warrior tradition to brave the dense jungles of Guadalcanal and the exposed beachheads of Iwo Jima. Serving with distinction in every major engagement of the Pacific theater from 1942-1945, their unbreakable code played a pivotal role in saving countless lives and hastening the war's end.

1) Who was our 'mutual enemy' during WWII?

2) How does is this idea reflected in the mysterious message on the back of our penny?

3) Write your name using the Navajo Code Talker Dictionary.

4) How had the Navajo been treated by the US Government in the century before WWII?

5) Why is this ironic?

6) What is happening to the Navajo Language today?

7) What does Star Wars sound like in 'Din'e,' the official language of the Navajo?

8) What other movies have been translated into 'Din'e'?'

Go for Broke!

The motto of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was “go for broke.” It’s a gambling term that means risking everything on one great effort to win big. The soldiers of the 442nd needed to win big. They were Nisei - American-born sons of Japanese immigrants. They fought two wars: the Germans in Europe and the prejudice in America.

1) Would you have joined the 442nd and risked your life for a country that had discriminated against you?

2) How did the 442nd ultimately prove themselves on the battlefield?

3) Were theses soldiers ever recognized for their service?

4) Were they ever considered 'equals' by their countrymen?