Journey to Understanding

Funded Jan 29, 2017

Thank you very much for the funds you donated so we were able to purchase the books and the Kindles for our study of the Japanese incarceration. We are all very grateful that we were able to undertake such an important topic and dig deeper to gain a better understanding of this terrible time in US history.

We started off the unit by reading the novel 'Journey to Topaz' and used materials from sources such as the Manzanar Historic Site and Densho, as well as from the California Museum, which has a Time of Remembrance exhibit and lesson plans for teachers. My students read the novels and participated in whole-class discussions as well as small-group study centers where they researched primary source materials online and in the books we purchased with the Donors Choose funds.

We visited the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento and saw an exhibit of photographs taken at Manzanar by Ansel Adams, plus photographs taken by Leonard Frank who took pictures in the camps in Canada. We also had a guest speaker visit our class, a woman named Joyce Takahashi, a Sansei who, along with her family from Berkeley, was incarcerated at Topaz. Learning from Mrs. Takahashi was an invaluable experience for my students and they will always remember it.

My students just wrote thank you letters and they overwhelmingly said something like this, "We will be able to take the information we learned and can keep telling the stories so it will never be forgotten," and "What I now know with this knowledge is I will help people not make the same mistake again." I truly believe that these kids and their outlook on life have been forever changed because of this incredible opportunity to dive into and study this important topic. It gives me much hope for the future.”

With gratitude,

Ms. George