WORLD WAR II: The Forgotten Moments

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A Four Week Study for Grade 5 World War II The Forgotten Moments A Four Week Study

OVERVIEW: This study is designed to re-examine the historical aspects of World War II from a multi-cultural perspective: taking into account the specific experiences of Japanese-American internees, Jews from not only Germany but also other European nations and the United States, as well as the portion of the German population who did not support Hitler, and all those from the warring countries who did not support the war but suffered its consequences. Through these perspectives, students will be able to learn the "other' history of World War II that is often overlooked by the traditional history texts and lessons.

This lesson is designed to integrate the subjects of social studies, reading, and writing.

The study will be done with the support of literature, videos, maps, and if possible, guest speakers/lecturers who represent the perspectives above listed. Students will be encouraged to express their own emotions about the history and information learned through journal writing, as well as write journal entries from the perspective of a child living during the war. The goal of this study will be to expand the students' historical knowledge, have the students glimpse into the horrors of war, and hopefully allow the students to become aware of the discrimination that has existed in our world, and hopefully use this knowledge to prevent it in their own worlds.

The study will be organized into centers, one for each of the perspectives. The students will visit the centers and perform the activities as designated by the center. Overall, the center activities will involve reading, writing, using resources to find information, and discussion. It will take approximately four weeks for each student to complete every activity in every center.

GERMANY-BEAT & DEVASTATED BY WORLD WAR I

This center contains eight activities, all dealing with the situation in Germany just prior and during World War II.

HISTORY

Activity A:

answer the following questions: 1. What happened in World War I?

2. What were living conditions like for the German people during the 1920s to late 1930s?

3. What political party gathered strength at this time period? Why did they gain popularity?

4. Why is it dangerous for one political party to hold complete control over a party?

ACTIVITY B:

Following the discussion, students will be asked to answer the following questions in the journal they will be keeping throughout the thematic uniG

"IF YOU WERE A GERMAN LNING IN THE TIME JUSf FOLLOWING WWI, HOW WOULD YOU FEEL? WOULD YOU SUPPORT THE NAZIS? WHY DO THINK SO MANY PEOPLE DID SUPPORT THE NAZlS?"

MAP

MATERIALS: Large blank maps of Europe (ideally one created by an opaque projector so that it may be drawn on and labeled by the teacher), individual student copies of blank maps, crayons, colored pencils, or other drawing materials.

ACTIVITY A: The teacher will present background information of the Axis and Allied countries in the forms of lists on the blackboard. The teacher will then ask students for volunteers to identify where these countries are located on the large map. The students and teacher will together fill in the maps with the countries names.

ACTIVITY B: As the class as a whole fills in the large map with the teacher, the students will fill in their individual maps with country names, as well as color-coordinate it according to Axis/Allied powers. (The map will then be put in the students' unit folders for latter lessons and for review)

ACTIVITY C: Write the names of all the countries controlled or allied with Germany(i.e. the Axis powers), and those allied with Britain and the US (i.e. the Allied powers) on index cards. Pass out the cards to students and have students taking turns standing up and allowing the other students to identify which category that specific country belongs to.

RESEARCH MATERIALS: CTTIES AT WAR: BERLIN by Eleanor Ayer, Chapters l, 3, & 4, WORLD WAR II by Tom McGowen, Chapters 1, Student Journals

ACTIVITY A: The students will be assigned to small groups of three to four students and read the material in these groups. Each group will read the entire selection, but each group will be assigned a specific topic to outline and introduce to the class.

ACTIVITY B: Following the group work the class will get together in a circle, and each group will explain their sections of the reading to the class. This activity will be followed by a question/answer session with the "expert' groups answering the appropriate questions.

ACTIVITY C: W rite a journal entry about your opinion of Hitler based on the readings and class discussion. Europe Germany

JAPANEESE AMERICAN INTERNMENT

This center will consist of eleven activities all focused on the internment camps for Japanese Americans. MAP

AC'TIVITY A: Locate one internment camp on the map. Using the map and the books available, find the following facts about the specific camp:

1. The state in which the camp is located.

2. The dates the camp opened and closed.

3. The peak population of the camp.

4. The city/cities where this camp's internees were relocated from.

ACTIVTTY B: Using the map as a guide take a blank map and draw in all internment camps.

ACTIVITY C: List the common traits of all the areas chosen for internment camps. (i.e. population density, climate, etc.)

BIOGRAPHY

ACTIVITY A: In the books provided, there are many stories about specific people's stories of internment.

l.List three specific persons' names who s stories are found in one of these books. 2. List one camp that one of these people was interned at

3. Identify the ages of the persons at the times of their internment

ACTIVITY B: Read one of the letters or stories written by one of these persons.

ACTIVTTY C: Write a letter as if you were a young person in an internment camp. (Feel Free to use any of the books or resources available here)

TIMELINE

ACTIVITY A: Using the timeline, find the following facts:

1. List three examples of injustices/discrimination.

2. What was the occupations of the first Japanese immigrants to the United States.

3. When were internment camps closed?

4. What year was the first year that Japanese citizens could become naturalized citizens?

ACTIVITY B: On the timeline, find the Evacuation Claims Act and find how much money was returned to the internment camp sufferers?

ACTIVITY C: What act, signed in 1988, was an attempt at redress of the persons affected by Executive Order 9066?

JAPANESE AMERICANS

ACTIVTTY A: Put yourself in the shoes of a Japanese American put into an internment camp, keep in mind that you were born and raised in the United States, you have never been to Japan, you don't t even speak Japanese. Now the government of your country, the only country you've ever known, has moved you away from your home, taken all your families belongings, and now you are being treated like a criminal. With a partial, list all the words to describe the emotions you might be feeling. (Hints: betrayed, injustice)

ACTIVITY B: Using the materials and books available, list all the Japanese Americans convicted of treason or conspiracy to commit treason against the United States during World War II7 Using the same materials, find the number of Japanese and Japanese Americans who served in the US Armed Forces during World War II.

IMPERIAL JAPAN This center consists of nine activities all focused on the perspective of Japan. MAP

MATERIALS: Large blank maps of Asia (ideally one created by an opaque projector so that it may be drawn on and labeled by the teacher), individual student copies of blank maps, crayons, colored pencils, or other drawing materials.

ACTIVITY A: The teacher will present background information of the countries and areas controlled by Japan in the forms of lists on the blackboard. The teacher will then ask students for volunteers to identify where these countries are located on the large map. The students and teacher will together fill in the maps with the countries names.

ACTIVlTY B: As the class as a whole fills in the large map with the teacher, the students will fill in their individual maps with country names, as well as color coordinate it according to independence or control by Japan. (The map will then be put in the students' unit folders for later lessons and for review)

ACTIVTTY C Write the names of all the countries controlled or allied with Japan and those allied with or controlled by the US on index cards. Pass out the cards to students and have students taking turns standing up and allowing the other students to identify which category that specific country belongs to.

HISTORY

ACTIVTTY A: Students will research the history of Japan, and answer the following questions in their journals:

1. What did the Japanese need from other countries?

2. What type of government did Japan have prior to W WII?

3. How did the Japanese feel about other countries in Asia?

ACTIVITY B: Trace the imperial history of Japan on the timeline. Choose two empires and find their: emperor, capital, and one major characteristics of those empires. Write down the information in your journals.

A COUNTRY AT W AR

ACTIVITY A: Define KAMIKAZE. What motivated these soldiers? Can you think of anything you would be willing to risk everything for? What is it? Why would you do anything to be able to have this? Tell me in your journal.

ACTIVITY B: Read My Hiroshima by Junko Morimoto with a partner. Discuss the book. Why is it sad?

ACTIVITY C: Read Faithful Elephants by Yukio Tsuchiya. Write an evaluation of this book in your journal.

ACTlVlTY D: After reading the two books in Activities B and C, write a short journal entry about what it would be like to live in Japan after the U.S. dropped the atomic bombs. How would it feel to lose friends and family? How would you feel about the United States?

ATTACK OF THE JEWS This center consists of eight activities based on the Jewish experience during W.W.II

ACTIVITY A: Research Martin Luther and the roots of ANTISEMTTISM in Germany. Answer the following questions:

1. W hat is ANTISEMITISM?

2. Was it fair?

3. Why did Hitler blame the JEWS for German's problems? (Define SCAPEGOAT)

ACTIVITY B: What are some of the things Hitler did to the Jews before the war? What other group faced similar although not as severe circumstances in the US? Answer these questions and those from ACTIVITY A in your journal. CONCENTRATION CAMPS

ACTIVITY A: Watch "The World At War' After the movie and reading the book, answer the questions in ACTIVITY B in your journals.

ACTIVITY B: What is a concentration camp? What were the conditions like? What were the Nazi soldiers like? Would you ever want to be put in a camp? Write what your experience might be like

.ACTIVITY C: Visit by HOLOCAUST survivors

ACTIVITY D: Video visit to the Holocaust museum.

BRAVE EUROPEANS WHO Assist THE JEWS

ACTIVITY A: Read Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Why would the Johansons help the Jews? What punishments did they face? Would you help your neighbor if you were in that situation? Why or why not? Did all those who could help the Jews do so? Why or why not?

ACTIVITY B: Watch "Schindler's List".

TIMELINE

Political Events of World War II

1939· World War ll begins one week after the August 23 signing of a mutual nonaggression pact between Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. Adolf Hitler has occupied Bohemia and Moravia and annexed Memel; his foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop, 46, signs the pact with Josef Stalin's new commissar of foreign affairs V. M. Molotov, and German troops and aircraft attack Poland September 1.

1940 ·The Blitzkrief (lightning war) that begins May 10 ends the "phony war" and rainsdestruction on the Lowlands from the air as German mechanized divisions sweep without warning into Belgium and Holland. They cross the Meuse at Sedan May 12, Rotterdam is nearly obliterated by bombing raids May14. Wilhelmina and her court escape to London the Dutch armies surrender May 14, and the Germans race into Belgium and northern France toward the Channel ports, cutting off British and Belgian forces from Gen.Maxime Weygand, now 72:, who has taken command of the collapsing French army. 1941

· World War II explodes into a global conflict as German troops invade Soviet Russia

and Japanese forces attack Pearl Harbor.

· President Roosevelt recommends a Lend-Lease program to aid the Allies in a January 6 congressional message that defies widespread isolationist sentiment.

· 1'ugoslavia has a revolution March 27; German troops invade April 6, Croats support them, and hundreds of thousands of Serbs are killed, mostly by Croatian irregulars.

· German troops invade Greece April 6.

· British and Free French troops invade Syria and Lebanon in early June to prevent a German takeover of those countries. Lebanese independence is proclaimed November 26.

· German troops invade Soviet Russia June ?,2, advance rapidly against the Soviet army, whose leaders have been to a large extent liquidated in Josef Stalin's political purges of the late 1930s, and lay siege to Leningrad. British intelligence predicts a Soviet collapse in 10 da5,s. U.S. intelligence says 3 months. German soldiers control an area twice the size of France by October, but they carry no winter clothing, and by December the Wehrmacht is fighting 360 Soviet divisions when it had anticipated fighting fewer than 200.

1942 ·

Japanese forces take Manila January, 2, invade the Dutch East Indies January 10, but

suffer their first major sea loss in late January at the Battle of Macassar Strait when U. S. and Dutch naval and air forces attack a Japanese convoy.

· President Roosevelt calls in January, for production in 19-12 of 60,000 planes, 45,000 tanks, 20 000 anti-aircraft guns, and 6 million deadweight tons of merchant shipping. His $S9 billion budget submitted January 7 has more than $a2 billion earmarked for the war effort.

· An Inter-American Conference assembles 21 representatives at I2io de Janeiro January 15 to coordinate Western Hemisphere defenses against aggression. Delegates adopt a unanimous resolution January 21 calling for severance of relations with the Axis powers, and the group sets up an Inter-American Defense Board in March.

· Singapore falls to the Japanese February 15. 'the big guns of the British naval base have fixed emplacements and point out to sea, making them useless against the Japanese who approach from the Malaya interior under Gen. 'Tomoyuki Yamashita , 36. He receives the surrender of more than 130,000 British and Commonwealth troops.

1943

The tide of war turns against the .Axis in North .Africa, the Pacific, Italy, and on the Russian front.

· 'Tripoli falls to the British Eighth Army January 23. Axis forces in Tunisia retreat with the British in hot prusuit.

· The Casablanca Conference attended by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, Gen. Griraud, and Gen. de Gaulle ends January, 27 with the appointment of Gen Eisenhower as commander of unified forces in North Africa.

· Berlin rushes reinforcements to Tunisia the Germans take Kiasserine Pass February 22, but US, troops retake the pass 4 days later. Tunis falls to the British May 7, Bizerte falls to the Americans the same day, and Axis resistance ends in North Africa.

· British paratroopers and U. S. airborne troops invade Sicily July 9 and 10. More than 500 US. bombers raid Rome July 19.

· Allied armies take Messina August 17, cross the Straits of Messina, and invade Southern Italy as representatives of the new Bagoglio regime sign an amristice with Allied officers at Algiers.

· Italy has surrendered unconditionally, the Allied high command announces September 8, but German forces in Italy resist the Allied advance.

· The U. S. Fifth Army lands at Salerno September 9 and sustains heavy losses. T he Americans take Naples October 1 as German forces seize Rome and other major Italian cities:

· Anzac (Australian-New Zealand-Canadian) and U. S. forces take the southeastern tip of New Guinea from the Japanese January, 22, assuring the safety of Australia from Japanese invasion.

· Allied forces take Guadalcanal in the Solomon lslands February, 8 after heavy fighting. · The Battle of the Bismarck Sea in earl5, March ends with US. Liberator and Flying Fortress bombers sinking an estimated 21 Japanese transports bound for New Guinea with 10,000 troops.

· Allied forces take the Japanese air base at Munda in the Solomons August 5 and destroy more than 300 Japanese planes 2 weeks later in attacks on the Wecvak airfield in New Guinea.

· U. S. intelligence intercepts and decodes Japanese messages about an inspection trip by Admiral Y'ama-moto out of Rabaul, P-38s shoot down Yamamo-to's plane August 18, and Japan loses the man who opposed the Axis alliance yet triumphed at Pearl Harbor.

U S. troops that landed at Sitka in the Aleutians in May retake Kiska August 15.

· Heavy bombing of industrial centers in Germany and occupied F'rance has begun on a continuous basis in January

· The Kremlin quietly dissolves the C

omintem in May in consideration of the wartime alliance between the Communists and Western allies (see 1930).

· The Battle of Kursk that begins July 5 involves 6,000 German and Russian tanks and 4,000 planes. It ends after a week of heavy fighting in a victory for the Soviet Fifth Army, but while the Germans have lost 70,000 men. 2 000 tanks, 1,392 planes, and 5,000 vehicles the Russian losses are at least comparable.

· Soviet forces retake Kharkov August 23 with help from increased Soviet industrial output and with IT.S. war materiael including steel, industrial machinery, planes, and motor vehicles supplied via Archangel, Vladivostok, and the Persian Gulf.

· The Moscow Conference in late October establishes a European advisory commission on terms of German surrender, separation of Austria from Germany, and destruction of Italy s Fascist regime.

· Allied forces have landed on Bougahnille in the Solomons November 1 following Allied bombing of Rabaul in New Britain since (October 12.

· U. S. troops take Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands in late November. Allied forces land on Cape Gloucester, New Britain, December 26.

The Battle of the Warsaw Ghetto that begins Pass-over Eve, April 18, ends 6 weeks later with 1,000 German troops killed and wounded, but 5,000 Jews have been killed defending themselves against German and artillery. Some 500,000 Jews had been locked into an area that formerly· accommodated half that number, and while thousands have escaped to join the Polish resistance. some 20,000 are deported to death camps such as Auschwitz (Oswiecim), Birkenau, Belzec, Chmelno, Maidenek, and Sobibor. Jews at Bialystock Tarnow, and other Polish cities offer resistance, but few will survive the genocidal Nazi Holocaust.

1944

Allied troops storm ashore 25 miles from Rome on Anzio beach January 22 after the

start of a new assault on the Line to the south. The Germans have just withdrawn their patrols in the Anzio area to reinforce the Gustav Line, but Gen. J. P. Lucas, commanding the US. VI Corps, misses his chance to advance on Rome. He has his men dig foxholes for 2 days to consolidate their beachhead and the Germans rush in reinforcements firing from the Alban Hills to pin down Allied troops. Allied bombers February 15 destroy the historic Benedictine abbey at Monte Cassino. 1702 feet above the main road from Naples to Rome. Gen. Frido von Senger und Etterlin has not used the abbey as an observahon post but employs its ruins as a fortress. Thousands of ALLIED troops die at Monte Cassino before Polish forces take it in May.

D-Day June 6 sees 176,000 Allied troops landing at Chnaha Beach, Utah Beach. and other Normandy beaches under the supreme command of Gen. Eisenhower whose forces take Cherbourg June 6.

An intrepid German spy at Istanbul has stolen allied plans for Operation C)verlord; they are in Nazi hands, but the German high command has been led to believe that the Normandy· landings are a diversion to draw Hifler's panzer divisions south to Normandy while 30 divisions strike at Calais. Gen. Rommel tries to persuade Gen. von Runstedt and der fiihrer that the Nonnandy landing is the real thing, Allied intelligeuce uses its knowledge of the secret German code to keep abreast of the split in German thinking, the flow of false information is redoubled, and Rommel does not receive the support that would have driven the invaders back into the sea.

· Soviet troops have recaptured Novgorod January 20 relieved Leningrad completely a week later, reached the border of prewar Poland in February, taken Krivoi Rog in the Ukraine February 22 after trapping 10 German divisions near Cherkassy, crossed the Dniester March 19, retalsen Odessa April 10, and retaken Sevastopol May 9.

· From 60,000 to 100,000 Getmans are trapped at Sevastopol and sutrender, but the Russians took no prisoners. Soviet troops round up 300,000 to i00,000 Crimean Tatars who welcomed the Germans and send them into exile in Central Asia as they clear the Llkraine of German invaders.

Winsk falls to the Russians July 3; 100,000 Getmans are captured.

'The RAF has bombed Berlin January 2(l, dropping 2,300 tons of bombs in an action that provoked protests Februaty 9 in the House of Lords. U.S. high-level bombers have begun daylight attacks March 6, using the Norden bombsight first developed in 1927 and still a US Secret

Buzz bombs with warheads of nearly 1 ton each begin falling on Britain September 8 as the ('Jetntans retaliate.

Allied forces in the Pacific take Kwajalein Island February 6, attack the main Japanese C'entral Pacific base at Truk in mid-February, land on Eniwetok in the Marshalls February 17, and at Hollandia in New Guinea April 22. B-29 bombers attack Japan's home island of Kyushu June 15.

Soviet troops cross the Curzon line in Poland July, 23 the Kremlin recognizes the Lublin Committee of Polish Liberation in Moscow July 26 as the governing authotity of a liberated Poland, R'arsaw rises against the Germans August 1 on orders from Gen. Bor-Komorowski (Tadeusz Komorowski). 49. of the Polish underground, who responds to an appeal by Moscow Radio, but Soviet troops are unable to come to the support of Bor-Komorowski, the Germans crush the uprising and inflict heavy losses, and Bor-Komorowski and a few survivors are forced to surrender after 2 months of ferocious fighting.

Allied forces cross the Loire August 11, the U.S. Seventh Army lands in southern France August 15 and begins moving up the Rhine V alley. the Third Army of Gen. George S. Patton. Jr., reaches the Seine August 19, Allied forces exterminate the German Seventh .Army in the Falaise Gap from .August 13 to August 20, French troops retake Matseilles August 23 and liberate Paris August 25 after more than 4 years of German occupation. Gen. de Gaulle enters Paris August 25; the French provisional government moves there from Algiers 5 days later.

Romania surrenders to Soviet forces August 24, the Red Army enters Bucharest August 30, Moscow declares war on Bulgaria September 5, Soviet columns enter Sofia September 16, and Belgrade falls to Soviet and Yugoslav partisan forces October 20.

Antwerp falls to the Allies September 4, Brussels is liberated September 5, but British airborne troops landed September 17 at Eindhoven and Amhem are unable to outflank the German Western defenses and sustain heavy losses before the survivors are withdrawn.

Buzz bombs take an increasing toll in Britain despite efforts by, .Allied bombers to destroy launching sites and knock out the German factories producing the bombs. Designed by German rocket expert R'ernher von Braun, the liquid-fueled missiles are called \'-2 (Vergeltungswaffe Zwei, revenge weapon two) bombs: more than 1,000 will land in Britain. killing more than 2.700 maiming and injuring another 6,500.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Trade Books:

Hest, Amy. 1991. Love You, Soldier. Four Winds Press: New York, NY. Hoagland, Sara. The Unbreakable Code . illus. by Julio Mines.

Lowry, Lois. 1989. Number the Stars. Dell Publishing: New York, NY. Mochizuki, Ken. Baseball Saved Us.

Morimoto, Junko. 1990. My Hiroshima. Puffin Books: New York, NY. Stanley, Jerry. 1994. I Am An American: A True Story of Japanese Internment Crown Publishers Inc.: New York, NY.

Tsuchiya, Yukio. 1988.(1951:Ctiginal text) Faithful Elephants . Houghton Mifflin, New York, NY.

Reference Books:

Ayer, Eleanor. 1992. Cities at War: Berlin. New Discovery Books: New York, NY.

Iritani, Frank & Joanne. 1994. Ten Visits : Accounts of visits to all the Japanese American Relocation Centers. Japanese American Curriculum Project, Inc.: San Mateo, CA.

Internment of Japanese Americans. Documents from the National Archives: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co.: Dubuque, IA.

McGowen, Tom. 1993. World War II. Franklin Watts Publishing: New York, NY.

Videos: Schindler's List

The World At War