In a writing assignment, younger students might try to imagine a typical day at Poston. Older students might write an essay on an aspect of the internment, using both the Miss Breed collection and some of the secondary sources from Resources. The exercise might highlight the differences between primary sources—the raw material of history—and the accounts of historians. In evaluating the essays, consider the strength of the students’ documentary evidence and the soundness of their interpretations of the evidence. Suggested topics:
- Family life in the camps
- The survival of Japanese traditions
- American loyalty among internees
- Internment and the Bill of Rights
To give older students another perspective on the letters as historical documents, you might distribute copies of the article History: Whose Story?
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