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?

The Face of the Enemy?

While many groups of Americans faced hardships during WWII, none had it harder than Japanese Americans.

After the attacks on Pearl Harbor Americans were understandably fearful of further attacks and spies. In early 1942, by Presidential executive order 9066, Japanese-Americans living primarily on the west coast were taken to internment camps as a security measure following the massive Pearl Harbor raid that temporarily incapacitated the Pacific fleet. A national sense of outrage consumed Americans. Strangers on the streets looked at one another with a new awareness.

The US Government claimed internment camps were vital to American security and that every effort was made to provide for their Japanese guests.

Compare the Government claims to actual photos of the camps taken from Ansel Adams famous book Born Free and Equal.

Watch this video to see what life in the camps was really like.

Listen to the song Kenji by Fort Minor.

1) Were American fears justified?
2) Can you tell who the enemy is just by looking at them?
3) Why weren't German's and Italians also sent to 'camps?'
4) Did all Japanese Americans go willingly? Who was Fred Korematsu?
5) What lessons did we learn from this mistake?
6) Did the United States ever apologize?

Doris Miller

In 1941, Miller was a 22-year-old mess attendant on the USS West Virginia. At the time, black sailors were consigned to roles in the messman branch — work that entailed swabbing decks, cooking and shining officers' shoes.

He had awoken at 6 a.m. and was collecting laundry when the Japanese attack began and an alarm sounded on the ship, according to the Navy. Miller headed to the antiaircraft battery magazine, but it had already been destroyed by torpedo damage. He proceeded to the deck, where he was assigned to carry his wounded comrades, including the ship's captain. Miller was strong: a former high school football player in Waco, Texas, he was the ship's heavyweight boxing champion.

"Miller went topside, carried wounded on his shoulders, made several trips up and down, wading through waist-deep water, oil-slicked decks, struggling uphill on slick decks," Navy Rear Adm. John Fuller said in 2016.

The young sailor then took over a .50-caliber anti-aircraft machine gun and fired it until the ammunition ran out. No matter that he'd never been trained on the weapon.

1) What is an 'Unsung Hero?'

2) Who was Third Class Cook Doris Miller?  Why was he given this stamp?

3) What opportunities did the war offer African Americans?   What Hardships did black soldiers still endure?

4) What was the 'Double V' campaign?

5) What even greater honor has Doris Miller received?  Do you agree?

Days Of Infamy

Like Pearl Harbor, the attacks on 9/11/01 forever changed us as a country. Not since December 7, 1941 had our nation suffered such a devastating defeat by a foreign power on our own soil. In the days after 9/11 comparisons to Pearl Harbor were frequently made. Both attacks resulted in a spirit of American unity. A common enemy was identified. A national government galvanized American energies to combat and destroy the forces that attacked the homeland.

Two years ago the US surgeon general described the upcoming grim period of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States as a "Pearl Harbor moment" and a "9/11 moment." 

Do you agree?  Why or why not?

Complete this Venn Diagram. 

Interstellar Dust Bowl

In “Interstellar,” humanity is endangered by a blight that is gradually eliminating the number of crops that are viable on Earth. The world economy and national governments have shrunk dramatically. Drones race through Midwestern skies, abandoned by the intelligence programs that set them aloft, and crash into fields where they are scavenged by entrepreneurial farmers like Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a former pilot who still dreams of flying. Violent dust storms, straight out of documentary footage of Dust Bowl storms, rise like mountains in the skies, and the particles fill children’s lungs, killing them. If it is not made explicit that the disaster is man-made, the use of testimony from actual Dust Bowl survivors  does. 

“This really happened. It’s just a question of could it happen on a global scale, or in such a way that our existence on the planet would be imperiled?"

What do you think?

List 3 specific steps we can take to prevent future human/ environment disasters like the dust bowl.

Alphabet Soup

John Green teaches you about the New Deal, which was president Franklin D. Roosevelt's plan to pull the united States out of the Great Depression of the 1930's. Did it work? Maybe. John will teach you about some of the most effective and some of the best known programs of the New Deal. They weren't always the same thing. John will tell you who supported the New Deal, and who opposed it. He'll also get into how the New Deal changed the relationship between the government and citizens, and will even reveal just how the Depression ended. (hint: it was war spending)

Critics of FDR's programs called them an 'Alphabet Soup' of confusing acronyms.  Conservatives felt FDR's government had no business regulating crop prices or digging ditches.  Radicals on the other hand felt that the President's New Deal hadn't gone far enough in redistributing the wealth.

What role should the government have in our lives?  Should the Government provide schools and roads?  Military?  Welfare? Health care?  Paid work leave?  Retirement?

What does our current POTUS think about the future of these programs?

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt

 

During your tour of the country, you learned about ordinary Americans who experienced the Great Depression. Like Lorena Hickok, you will now report your discoveries. Use the information in your scrapbook to write a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt describing the hardships people endured during the Depression.

Your letter must have the following:

1. An appropriate date, salutation, and closing.
2. A brief introduction summarizing the states you visited and the types of people you met.
3. A description of your visit to at least two states. For each state, include:

• information on the hardships people faced during the Depression and the ways in which they endured those hardships.
• a quotation and one or more facts from the reading.
• any relevant Vocabulary Terms.

4. At least four of these words: betrayal, change, depressed, desperation, destitute, dreadful, encourage, honorable, hope, ideals, plague, pride, self-respect, shame, stress, suffer, worth.
5. A conclusion summarizing your thoughts about how ordinary Americans endured the hardships they faced during this time period.

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