Students will create a simple Haiku that will describe the living conditions in Manzanar. A Haiku is a traditional Japanese poem, which is symbolic of the cultural importance in the text. After the Socratic seminar is completed, the students will write a Haiku poem. A Socratic seminar allows students to teach each other as they answer questions and listen to others’ opinions. Through questioning they will express their opinions about the book and further explore some of its themes. Students will engage in a Socratic seminar.

(Some of the questions can be used whether the book was read or not.) Overview

Socratic seminar based on the book Farewell to Manzanar. Essential QuestionĬitizens show allegiance to their country, but is their country required to do the same? Activity One It graphically depicts the life of one family beginning at the formation of the camp, through three years at the camp, and afterward. The story of the internees is seen vividly through the eyes of a child, a father, and a mother. The book Farewell to Manzanar: A True Story of Japanese American Experience During and After the World War II by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is the story of one family's journey to the internment camp of Manzanar. By February 1942, President Roosevelt released Executive Order 9066, which allowed the government to legally detain American citizens of Japanese, Italian, and German origin. After Pearl Harbor was bombed and the United States entered World War II, the FBI declared all Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans to be 'dangerous enemy aliens.' The government arrested and detained people on a daily basis.

By 1913, Japanese Americans were not allowed to own land in California. US (for an extended list of Supreme Court cases related to immigration, see History Now's issue on immigration). The United States Supreme Court upheld this ban in 1922 in the court case Ozawa v. In 1911, the United States Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization declared that only people descended from whites and African Americans could become citizens. In the years after that, however, the United States made it more difficult for Japanese to immigrate to America.

In 1886, after the arrival of Commodore Perry, the Japanese government lifted its ban on emigration and allowed its citizens to move to other countries.

Farewell to manzanar jeanne