Camp Harmony from Nisei Daughter By Monica Sone Pre-reading: Essential Questions: Does a government have the right to suspend civil liberties in order to protect the national security of a country? How can fear influence peoples actions? Directions- Read the Fourth Amendment, 1791. With a partner, discuss its meaning. Write your interpretation on the lines provided. Fourth Amendment, 1791 The right of people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 28
** Think about- What strategies can you use to help you better understand the above Amendment? Directions- Read the following information based on Japanese Internment Camps. Number each paragraph and after each paragraph, STOP and in the margin, summarize the paragraph. Answer the question that follows. Historical Background When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, World War II was already in its second year. The surprise bombing put the United States into a panic and resulted in the immediate Declaration of War by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. America joined the Allied Forces, with England and Russia, to fight against the Axis Powers, led by Germany, Italy, and Japan. Longstanding prejudice in our country against Japanese Americans combined with newly inflamed fear and distrust to create unprecedented heights of hysteria. The success of the attack on Pearl Harbor was thought to be the result of espionage by Japanese Americans in Hawaii and on the West Coast. Newspaper articles and pressure groups called for the expulsion of all Japanese Americans. Evacuation: On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. This act based on ethnicity permitted the military to bypass the constitutional safeguards of American citizens in the name of national defense. The order excluded persons of Japanese ancestry then living on the West Coast from residing and working in certain locations. This traumatic uprootment culminated in the mass evacuation and incarceration of most Japanese Americans, most of whom were U.S. citizens or legal permanent resident aliens. They were detained for up to 4 years, without due process of law or any factual basis. Internment and Relocation: Large groups were moved, mainly by train, to permanent concentration camps (later to be called internment camps). When the plan for relocation was completed, 10 camps in seven states were in full operation. Those facilities that were located in desert areas were inescapably hot and dusty, reaching temperatures of over 100 degrees F. People in northern camps fought sub-zero winters. The internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers. Armed military guards patrolled the perimeter and were instructed to shoot anyone attempting to leave. Japanese American internment raised questions about the rights of American citizens as embodied in the first ten amendments to the Constitution. 29
Short Answer Constructed Response How were the rights of Japanese American citizens violated? How did the government s actions contradict the Fourth Amendment belief? Your response should include: a. An explanation of how rights were violated b. An explanation of how the government s actions contradicted the fourth amendment c. Write in complete sentences and use correct punctuation and capitalization. 30
Camp Harmony from Nisei Daughter -Monica Sone Pre-reading Directions- Answer the following questions before reading the short story Camp Harmony from Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone. What was I doing behind a fence, like a criminal? 1. Based on the above question on page 645 of the short story, what feeling is evoked? Use evidence from the question to support your feeling. 2. The story is titled Camp Harmony? Have you ever heard the word harmony before? If so, where and write a definition of the word. If you have never heard the word, look it up on your phone or in the dictionary. Write the definition on the lines provided. 3. Based on your definition of harmony and the question on page 645, predict how irony might exist in the story. Directions- As you read the short story Camp Harmony from Nisei Daughter by Monica Sone, highlight and label important elements of the plot as well as literary elements. Annotate as you read, make notes in the margin summing up the paragraphs and noting key ideas. Once you have read and annotated, then answer the questions that follow in complete sentences. 31
1. During the exposition of the story, what point of view is revealed to the reader? What type of words does the narrator use that help reinforce this point of view? 2. Reread the last paragraph in column one on page 646. Using the details in the passage and your prior knowledge, make an inference of how the Japanese Americans will be treated at Puyallup. 3. On the basis of her comment about the dandelions on page 646, column two, what kind of person does Sone s mother seem to be? 4. Reread the following poem on page 647 and answer the question that follows. Oh, Dandelion, Dandelion, Despised and uprooted by all, Dance and bob your golden heads For you ve finally found your home With your yellow fellows, nari keri, amen! How are the dandelions in the poem similar to the Japanese Americans in the camp? 5. Label any literary elements present in the poem? 32
6. What message, theme, is being conveyed to the reader from the passage below? Father came back, bent double like a woodcutter in a fairy tale, with the stacks of scrap lumber over his shoulder. His coat and trouser pockets bulged with nails. Father dumped his loot in a corner and explained, There was a pile of wood left by the carpenters and hundreds of nails scattered loose. Everybody was picking them up, and I hustled right in with them. Now maybe we can live in style, with tables and chairs. (page 648) 7. What effect does the author create by her choice of words to describe the rain (page 648, second column)? A light drizzle began to fall, coating bare black heads with tiny sparkling raindrops. 8. Why would the author most likely agree that her experience at lunch was very unappealing? Use evidence from the story to support your answer. Reread page 649, column one. 9. On page 650, the author compares her parents to other Americans. How are they similar? Why might this similarity be important? What does it show? 33
10. On page 650, the first column, the author Monica Sone reveals a certain tone? What is her tone in this passage and who is it directed at? 11. Based on the selection as a whole and the last paragraph on page 650, what generalization can you make about how war affects people s attitudes and behavior toward one another? 12. Sone says her camp was hopefully called Camp Harmony (page 646). Do you believe that name is appropriate? Support your opinion using two pieces of textual evidence. Make sure to cite your evidence. Homework- Answer the following questions in complete sentences. 13. Sone says that she was imprisoned because some people had little faith in the ideas and ideals of democracy (page 650). What does he mean? 14. Is she stating a fact or an opinion? 34