Lee, Russell. Twin Falls, Idaho. FSA (Farm Security Administration) farm workers' camp. Japanese washing dishes. 1942. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017819506/.
Students will use this photo as the subject of their writer’s notebook prompt, which will serve as the basis of the lesson. It is expected that students will infer only so much from what they see in the photograph (i.e., the men’s facial expressions, clothing, living conditions, their surroundings, etc.), which should lead to a larger discussion of the importance of context and individual acts of resilience.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, declaring that Japanese people living in “military exclusion zones” must be relocated to internment camps. Minidoka was the site of one of these major camps.
Source: https//www.nps.gov/miin/learn/historyculture/index.htm
- What do the men’s facial expressions signify about their situation?
- What clues in this photograph might suggest that it has been staged by the photographer?
- What do the living conditions in the background of the photograph tell the viewer about the reality of these men’s situation?
ELA Standard
9/10 Reading Comprehension 3: Draw ample evidence from grade-level texts to support claims and inferences, attending to the precise details of the authors’ descriptions or explanations through quoting, paraphrasing, and citing textual references.
Social Studies Standard
6-12.HT2.3: Use questions generated about individuals and groups to assess how the significance of their actions changes over time and is shaped by the historical context.
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Writer’s Notebook: Project the photo or have it printed for students to look at/share with table partners. For a writer’s notebook prompt, as students: What can/can’t you tell about a person just from looking at them? Encourage students to think deeply with these possible follow-up prompts:
- How do you respond when your friend is rude to you?
- What could people learn about you just from looking at you?
- What might people not know about you just from what they see on the surface?
Students should be given time to share their writing, either with the whole class or with a partner.
- Visual Analysis/Stations: For this section, students will be given notecards to write responses to questions posted around the room. The goal of this section is for students to analyze the photograph and use evidence to make inferences about the scene. The stations should have the following guiding prompts (each of these should be followed with the question, What evidence do you have?):
- What do you think these men were doing earlier today?
- Where do you think these men were born?
- What do you think these men do for work?
- Why are these men washing dishes outside?
- Mini-Lesson and Historical Background: Teacher will provide historical context about Japanese American relocation during WWII, focusing on internment camps like this one (Minidoka, Idaho). Further resources can be found online at the Densho Digital Archive (densho.org). The teacher should point out the contrast between the situation the men shown in the picture were in and how they are portrayed in the photo (i.e., Could the photographer have staged it to make them seem happier than they really are? For what purpose?). Discuss with the class stories of interned Japanese Americans who showed resilience in the face of adversity, as well as how what we see on the surface may not show the whole picture.
Lee, Russell. Nyssa, Oregon. FSA (Farm Security Administration) mobile camp. Japanese-Americans in the clinic. 1942. Photograph. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. https://www.loc.gov/item/2017819017/.