TOUR OF
WWII * focusing on multiple perspectives
KEYPOINTS:
- We need to
consider all the possible multiple perspectives and actively seek them
out. Then we need to make choices and
think about why we want to include or exclude particular perspectives and what
that means to the topic and to our students.
- When books don’t
exist, it is our job as activists to find additional resources (internet) in
order to present “missing voices” until a suitable book exists.
- Teacher-created
summaries can meet the need of a more inclusive story AND also make the topic
accessible to children with language limits – e.g., teachers can adjust
language, print size, and readability level, computers can read text to
students.
- See the summary samples below.
BOOK EXAMPLES:
The Unbreakable Code – Sara Hoagland Hunter
Passage to Freedom:
The Sugihara Story – Ken
Mochizuki
I Am An American – Jerry Stanley
So Far From the Sea – Eve Bunting
The Bracelet
– Yoshiko Uchida & Joanna Yardley
Those Incredible Women of World War II – Karen Zeinert
The Invisible Thread: The Powerful Memoir of a Girl
Consigned to a Concentration Camp by The U.S. Gov’t – Yoshiko Ushida
Aleutian Sparrow – Karen Hesse
The Tuskegee Airmen – Jaqueline Harris
Baseball Saved Us – Ken Mochizuki
Number the Stars – Lois Lowry
Anne Frank:
The Diary of a Young Girl – Anne Frank
The True Story of the Three Little Pigs – Jon Scieszka (example of multiple perspectives)
WWII - Native Americans
Carl Gorman died in February, 1998, he was 90 and the oldest of
the 400 Navajo code talkers. He was the
father of artist R.C. Gorman from Taos, N.M.
He spent much of WWII in the Pacific on his belly at the front lines, a
radio rather than a rifle in his hands, just as other Navajo volunteers did,
making sure that the Japanese code crackers, who broke the Army, Navy, and Air
Corps. codes, would never learn anything from intercepted Marine radio
messages.
Navajo is a language without an alphabet and with such a complex,
irregular syntax that in 1942 it was estimated that outside of the 50,000
Navajos, no more than 30 other people in the world had any knowledge of it,
none of them Japanese. It was a wonder
that Mr. Gorman or any other Navajos still spoke Navajo at all in the face of a
long and concerted Federal campaign to suppress Indian languages. He had once been chained to an iron pipe for
a week because he insisted on speaking his native tongue.
When the Japanese figured out that Marine radio operators were
speaking Navajo and tried to torture a captured Navajo soldier, unfamiliar with
the code, into translating messages, he was as much in the unknown as his
Japanese captors. He could tell them
that cay-da-gahi meant turtle, but he
had no idea that turtle meant tank.
The Navajo code, which was never broken, was considered so valuable that
code talkers were not allowed to talk about it until 1969.
Source: The New York Times,
Obituary 2/1/1998
WWII - African Americans - Tuskegee
Adhering to its own policies of racial segregation, the U.S. Army
Air Force had only one facility for Basic and Advanced Flight Training for Black
pilots and that was at the Tuskegee Army Air Field, near Tuskegee Institute in
Alabama, which existed only as a result of a lawsuit brought by an African
American who was refused for pilot training because of his race.
The “Tuskegee Experiment” was expected to “prove” racial
deficiencies in intelligence and concentration, yet the Tuskegee Institute
graduated 926 African-American pilots.
The 332nd Fighter Group was comprised of the 99th, 100th, 301st, and
302nd Fighter Squadrons of the U.S. Army Air Corps. The Red Tail Angels of the 332nd would end
the war as the only fighter group in over 1,578 missions throughout Europe and
North Africa to NEVER lose a bomber while escorting over 200 bombing missions.
American pilots were not expected to fly more than 50 missions or
so before returning home, yet the Black American pilots - due of “lack of
replacements” flew closer to 100 missions. They retuned home, the finest pilots
in the U.S. and found themselves back in “Colored Only” lines. In one case, more than a hundred Tuskegee
Airmen Officers were arrested and court martialled for refusing to leave the
segregated Officer’s Club at Freeman Field in Indiana. Three years later (1948), President Truman
officially desegregated the Armed Forces.
WWII - Japanese Americans - Camps
As a result of the war with Japan, many people in he U.S. did not
trust people of Japanese ancestry. Even
Japanese-Americans who were born in this country were mistakenly thought to be
loyal to Japan. On February 19, 1942,
President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible
removal of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry into concentration camps. More than two-thirds of those relocated under
this order were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any
disloyalty. In the entire course of the
war, 10 people were convicted of spying for Japan, all of whom were White.
The definition of concentration camp is a place of confinement for
political prisoners, which is what happened during WWII to Japanese Americans.
To not use this language maintains the mythology that the U.S. has never had
these types of prisons (and maintains the ideology that the U.S. is better than
many other countries). In addition, the
term concentration camp is the one that was used by U.S. officials, including
FDR, at the time. The government quickly
changed its *public* language in order to make the camps more acceptable. Roger
Daniels (in his book "Japanese Americans: From relocation to
redress") states, "internment is a well defined legal process by
which enemy nationals are placed in confinement in times of war." As he notes, the incarceration of Japanese
immigrants and non-U.S. citizens immediately after Pearl Harbor was internment. The imprisonment of almost 100,000 U.S.
citizens because of how they looked and a more powerful group’s desire for
economic gain does not fit the definition of internment. (Information in this
paragraph from: Karen L. Suyemoto, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts - Boston)
On August 10, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil
Liberties Act of 1988 that provided a Presidential apology and symbolic payment
of $20,000 to the internees, evacuees, and persons of Japanese ancestry who
lost liberty or property because of discriminatory action by the Federal
government during WWII.
Sources:
WWII - Japanese Americans - Soldiers
The 100th Infantry battalion of Nisei (2nd generation
Japanese-Americans) volunteers was formed in May, 1942. By September, 1943, they were sent to Italy
where they saw fierce combat and came to be known as the “Purple Heart
Battalion” because of their high casualty rate.
Due to the stunning success of Nisei in combat, the draft was
reinstated in January, 1944 for Nisei in the detention camps to bolster the
ranks of the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team. The 100/442nd became the most decorated unit
in U.S. military history for its size and length of service. There were over 18,000 individual decorations
for bravery, 9,500 Purple Hearts, and seven Presidential Distinguished Unit Citations.
It was the 100/442nd that liberated the Dachau concentration camp
in Germany.
WWII - African Americans - Overseas
Like other Allied forces that landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944,
they faced the German enemy on the beach in front of them. Their role on D-Day
isn't well-known. One black face appears briefly in the movie "The Longest
Day"; none is seen in "Saving Private Ryan." Most histories of
the climactic assault on Normandy also fail to notice that black soldiers were
there.
In fact, blacks were among the assault troops that June 6, and one
unit was responsible for maintaining barrage balloons over the beachhead that
protected troops landing.
The Stars and Stripes newspaper in 1944 reported that the unit
suffered casualties setting up the balloons, which were floated across the
English Channel on invasion day. Army photographers recorded black troops in
operations liberating French villages around the beaches, and stories of the
time cited black troops who were awarded medals for bravery and meritorious
duty.
The exact number of blacks involved in the D-Day landings is
unknown, as is the number of casualties. He estimates that from 1,500 to 2,000
of the 57,000 troops involved were black. The Army didn't record racial or
ethnic differences when counting the dead.
Sources:
startribune.com
Remembering Role of Black GIs on June 6, 1944 by Lance Gay
Scripps Howard News Service, Published May 30, 2004
WWII - Mexican Americans - Bracero
On August 4, 1942, the U.S. and the Mexican governments instituted
the Bracero program. Thousands of
impoverished Mexican farm workers abandoned their rural communities and headed
north to the southwestern part of the U.S. to work the fields once harvested by
Americans who were off to war. The
Bracero could return to their native lands in case of an emergency, only with
written permission from their boss. When
their contract expired, the Bracero were required to turn in their permits and
return to Mexico. The Bracero suffered
harassment and oppression from extremist groups and racist authorities.
The Bracero were a very experienced farm labor who became the
foundation for the development of North American agriculture. The program under which more than three
million Mexicans entered the U.S. to labor in the agricultural fields ended in
1964.
WWII - American Women - Soldiers &
Nurses
An average female clerical salary was only $850 per year, few
could afford the $750 required for obtaining a pilot’s license, unless they had
family backing. Over 25,000 women applied to be WASPs (Women Airforce Service
Pilot), yet only 1,839 of that number were accepted and only 1,074 received
their silver wings. Although all of
those applying had some previous flight training and many were already licensed
pilots, few survived the rigorous screening and training standard set up for
the WASP.
WASPs flew U.S. military aircraft during WWII in a special program
designed to free male pilots for overseas duty.
Female pilots utilized their skills to transport new war birds from the
factories to needed airfields. With the
enormous losses of male aviators, there were now more planes available than
pilots to fly them, especially for ferrying duties. These women often transported top secret
documents, including parts for assembling the world’s first atomic bomb. They offered both basic and instrument instruction
to men and even flew highly classified experimental aircraft such as the first
jets.
Many female pilots were mistaken for mail carriers, flight
attendants, boat captains, doormen, and even as members of another country's
military because uniformed women soldiers were so rare.
Women were also military nurses.
With a nudge from Eleanor Roosevelt, the Navy began authorizing a
Women’s Naval Reserve and the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. These women were WAVES (Women Accepted for
Volunteer Emergency Services). The WAAC
(Women’s Army auxiliary Corps) was changed to the WAC establishing it as part
of the Army and not an auxiliary by a second bill in July of 1943, signed by
President Roosevelt.
In July of 1944, WACs landed on the beach at Normandy. There were over one hundred thousand women in
uniform at this point in time.
Sources:
WWII - Mexican Americans - Soldiers
On March 14, 1944, President Roosevelt agreed to accept the
participation of one or two Mexican air squadrons. This event marked the first time the Mexican
troops were trained for combat.
Although only in the Philippines for six months, the squadron
actively participated in 59 combat missions totaling over 1,290 hours of
flight. They successfully participated
in the Allied effort to bomb Luzon and Formosa in an attempt to push the
Japanese out of the islands. Assigned to
the 58th Fighter group of the U.S. 5th Air Force, the “Aztec Eagles” were also
used as ground support after the aerial threat from Japan weakened.
WWII - American Women - “Production
Soldiers”
In July 1941, the American Red Cross called upon “every woman and
girl in Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama who knits, crochets, or sews“ to
cooperate in meeting the deadline for completing the area’s assigned quota of
sewing. In addition to sewing and
winding bandages, the female inhabitants were active participants in the
civilian defense effort.
In April 1942, the University of Alabama offered a course in
chemical laboratory techniques for-women-only; those who desired to qualify for
jobs in defense laboratories. While many
male factory workers went to war, at the Huntsville Arsenal, black and white
men did the heavy work, while white females were employed for production
work. No demand was made for large
numbers of black females until the local labor market was exhausted of white
females.
Pay was not equal. For
examples, men who worked in mustard gas production were paid $5.76 daily, while
women were paid $4.40. The principle of
“equal pay for equal work,” adopted by the War Labor Board in 1942 was
subsequently implemented at arsenals as part of the basic War Department
philosophy of wage administration. Even
lingering doubts about the suitability of hiring black women for defense work
were soon overridden by the pressing need to meet production demand.
The movement toward all female work crews was a gradual one,
particularly in those areas where women had never been assigned duty. But by 1943, a women supervisor and her “all
female crew of 15” had acquired the reputation for being “one of the most
efficient crews at the arsenal.” By May
1944, Huntsville peaked in employing 6,707 men and women, 63% male (11% were
black, 52% white) and 37% female (11% were black, 26% white)
Redstone Arsenal implemented its first reduction in force in June
1945, when about 200 employees were terminated, mostly black women. By October, the number of female production
employees was reduced to zero.
Huntsville Arsenal placed 500 operations employees, almost all women, on
a 90 day furlough in August 1945, then continued a layoff through September.
The reason given for this decision was based on the belief that women were “not
suited for transfer to the heavy work.”
WWII - Jewish Experience in Germany
The beginning of the Second World War brought millions of
non-German Jews under German rule, mostly in Poland. But still no clear concept
existed about what to do with them. In Poland the SS often forced Jews to live
in ghettos, most prominently in Warsaw and Kracow, and resettled them in big
cities or along railroad lines. The official policy was still expulsion and
exclusion from the rest of society, not extermination, but shootings occurred,
and living conditions in the ghettos were so terrible as to produce a high
mortality.
But in the fall of 1941 the SS constructed death factories with
gas chambers. A Europe-wide extermination program started. In the following
three years the remaining Jews from Germany and all occupied countries were
rounded up, put into freight trains, and driven across Europe to the death
camps in Poland, most notably Auschwitz, Maidanek, and Treblinka. There the
survivors of the transports were led to a ramp on which Nazi doctors separated
the most fit and sent them to the work camps right next to the extermination
camps. The others were led into windowless chambers. After they had undressed
(presumably to take a shower), gas dropped in from the ceiling and killed them
within minutes. Most of those who had to work did not survive either.
Besides Jews, the "death factories" also killed
opponents of the regime (German and non-German), Gypsies, Russian prisoners of
war, and many other innocent people. The gruesome mass murder intensified
toward the end of the war, as Hitler believed that the extermination of the
Jews would be his lasting "achievement" in history and that future
generations would be grateful. The Holocaust claimed roughly six million Jewish
victims. Around five million other people were killed as well, including
between two and three million Soviet prisoners of war, many gypsies, German
resisters, communists, homosexuals, and other groups. The death machinery
worked as long as German troops held Poland. When the Russians advanced in late
1944, the SS destroyed the death camps and the relating documents (making the
task of historians to establish exact numbers and procedures more difficult).
Sources:
WWII - Aleut Internment
In response to Japanese aggression in the Aleutians, U.S. authorities
evacuated 881 Aleuts from nine villages. They were herded from their homes onto
cramped transport ships, most allowed only a single suitcase. Heartbroken, Atka
villagers watched as U.S. servicemen set their homes and church afire so they
would not fall into Japanese hands.
The Aleuts were transported to Southeast Alaska and there crowded
into "duration villages": abandoned canneries, a herring saltery, and
gold mine camp-rotting facilities with no plumbing, electricity or toilets. The
Aleuts lacked warm winter clothes, and camp food was poor, the water tainted.
For two years they would remain in these dark places, struggling to survive.
Illness of one form or another struck all the evacuees, but medical care was
often nonexistent, and the authorities were dismissive of the Aleuts'
complaints. Pneumonia and tuberculosis took the very young and the old. With
the death of the elders so, too, passed their knowledge of traditional Aleut
ways.
Despite their poor treatment at the hands of the U.S. government,
twenty-five Aleut men joined the Armed Forces. Three took part in the U.S.
invasion of Attu Island, and all were awarded the Bronze Star.
The Attuans suffered severe deprivation during the war. For three
years, they were imprisoned in the city of Otaru on Hokkaido Island, subsisting
almost soley on rice. What the war had not done, a stroke of the pen had
accomplished – four communities had met with extinction. Those villagers
allowed to reoccupy their homes found them ravaged by the weather and vandalized
by U.S. servicemen, the windows smashed, doors and furniture gone. Worse still
was the theft of religious icons and subsistence equipment – boats and rifles.
Some Aleut worked until their hands bled to repair the damage that had been
done, but it would take years to recover, to fashion new communities and a new
order for themselves. Politicized by their stay in the camps, the Aleut began
the long battle for restitution. The evacuation had taken place for
humanitarian reasons, but racism too had played a role in their abrupt
evacuation and poor treatment in the camps.
It would be forty years until restitution would be made, but on
August 10, 1988 Public Law 100-383 was signed calling for financial
compensation and apology from Congress and the President in behalf of the
American people.
WWII - Gay/Lesbian Experience
The history of the pink triangle begins before WWII, during Adolf
Hitler's rise to power. Paragraph 175, a clause in German law prohibiting
homosexual relations, was revised by Hitler in 1935 to include kissing,
embracing, and gay fantasies as well as sexual acts. Convicted offenders -- an
estimated 25000 just from 1937 to 1939 -- were sent to prison and then later to
concentration camps. Their sentence was to be sterilized, and this was most
often accomplished by castration. In 1942 Hitler's punishment for homosexuality
was extended to death.
Each prisoner in the concentration camps wore a colored inverted
triangle to designate their reason for incarceration, and hence the designation
also served to form a sort of social hierarchy among the prisoners. A green
triangle marked its wearer as a regular criminal; a red triangle denoted a
political prisoner. Two yellow triangles overlapped to form a Star of David
designated a Jewish prisoner. The pink triangle was for homosexuals. A yellow
Star of David under a superimposed pink triangle marked the lowest of all
prisoners -- a gay Jew.
Although homosexual prisoners reportedly were not shipped en masse
to the death camps at Auschwitz, a great number of gay men were among the
non-Jews who were killed there. Estimates of the number of gay men killed
during the Nazi regime range from 50,000 to twice that figure. When the war was
finally over, countless many homosexuals remained prisoners in the camps,
because Paragraph 175 remained law in West Germany until its repeal in 1969.
In the 1970's, gay liberation groups resurrected the pink triangle
as a popular symbol for the gay rights movement. In the 1980's, ACT-UP (AIDS
Coalition To Unleash Power) began using the pink triangle for their cause. They
inverted the symbol, making it point up, to signify an active fight back rather
than a passive resignation to fate.
One additional note: Alan
Turing was a gay mathematician and THE founding father of computer science who
was instrumental in the British war effort during World War II. After the war,
he was convicted of having homosexual sex and forced to undergo drug and
hormone treatments.
