Download Japanese American Internment: Examining Racial

Japanese American Internment:
Examining Racial Tensions
Examining Racial Tensions
Objective:
To recognize and evaluate the context of racial
tensions and prejudice before internment.
What is Propaganda?
Propaganda:
Information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread
widely to help or harm a person, group, movement,
institution, nation, etc.
What Kind of Propaganda are We
Looking at?
Today we are going to look at
Anti-Japanese Propaganda from the time
periods before and during internment.
Why Look at Propaganda?
By looking at the racist and prejudice
Anti-Japanese propaganda within war
posters, popular culture, and political
cartoons we will be able to see how nonJapanese viewed the Japanese community
and why it was that the Japanese were so
hated and feared.
Anti-Japanese War Posters and Popular
Culture
•Today we will be looking at a series of AntiJapanese War Posters and Popular Culture Items.
•There are 4 categories which we will use to
examine the prejudice within today’s war posters
and political cartoons:
Japanese as Uncivilized
Japanese as Animals
Japanese as Predators
Japanese as Curiosities
Anti-Japanese Propaganda:
Uncivilized
• How does this cartoon portray
America?
• How is does it portray Japan
and simultaneously Japanese
Americans?
• What is the Japanese man
holding?
• Who is that in the background?
• What does the addition of
these characters mean?
Anti-Japanese Propaganda:
Animals
• What images do you see
in this poster?
• What / who do these
images represent?
• What is Japan doing?
• What message does this
poster send to Americans?
Anti-Japanese Propaganda:
Predators
• How does this poster
portray the Japanese as
predators?
• What message does this
poster send to
Americans?
• How might Americans
react to this poster?
Anti-Japanese Propaganda:
Curiosities
Think-Pair-Share
Turn to your neighbor and
discuss the following cartoon.
You might want to talk about the
following questions:
What do you see in this
cartoon?
What message is it sending to
Americans?
How might a cartoon like this
have impacted the time period
before internment?
Political Cartoon Activity
In your assigned group analyze your
group’s Dr. Suess cartoon.
Make sure to answer all of the questions on
the worksheet.
Political Cartoon #1
Source: Dr. Suess Goes to War
Political Cartoon #2
Source: Dr. Suess Goes to War
Political Cartoon #3
Source: Dr. Suess Goes to War
Political Cartoon #4
Source: Dr. Suess Goes to War