Last Chance for Special Exhibit Field Trip!

Dorothea Lange’s picture of young girls practicing school songs, Manzanar Relocation Center. Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

There’s still time to bring school groups to the Museum for the special exhibit field trip, From Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII. The story of Japanese American internment and military enlistment, in spite of discrimination, holds many important lessons for today about citizenship, patriotism, and civil rights. From September 8th through October 8th, 2014,  students in grades 6 through 12 have the opportunity to explore this special exhibit to discover what US internment policy was, what life was like for the over 110,000 Japanese American citizens who were placed in internment camps during WWII, and to reflect on the reasons why many Japanese Americans enlisted in the military, in spite of wartime discrimination. Students also build historical empathy and become hands-on historians by investigating 1940s high school yearbooks and propaganda to learn about how Japanese American internment impacted high school students like themselves as friends and classmates were sent away to the camps.

This special exhibit field trip is available Monday through Wednesday at 9:15 am. and 10:45 am, and at 1:00 pm from September 8th through October 8th, 2014. Space is limited to grades 6-12, with 40 students and 4 teachers per time slot, and the entire experiences is 90 minutes. For rates and to schedule the field trip, please call 504-528-1944 x222 or visit The National WWII Museum’s field trip page . To learn more about the special exhibit and pre- and post-visit lessons and activities that are available for the classroom, please visit the From Barbed Wire to Battlefields: Japanese American Experiences in WWII website.

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Post by Megan Byrnes, K-12 Curriculum Coordinator.