Teacher s supplement to use with - Brief Plot Summary Discussion Questions Historical Drawings and Photos for Discussion Detailed Plot Summary Historical Background What Did You Read? Form Book Report Form Word Play Activity Fill in the Blanks Review Activity Brief Plot Summary Sent Away is the story of the Higashis, a Japanese-American family. At New Year s dinner in 1941, the Higashis celebrated their good life in Northern California, living on their successful strawberry farm and running a boarding house for the farmworkers. They were prosperous and proud to be in America. On December 7, the bombing of Pearl Harbor changed everything. Keiko and her brother Tatsu were American citizens, but they and their parents were sent away to Poston, a Relocation Camp in the Arizona desert for the duration of the WWII. It was dusty, hot, and crowded with poor sanitation. Mrs. Higashi died there. Tatsu joined the U.S. army and was killed fighting for America in Europe. Mr. Higashi helped administer the camp s co-op, while Keiko studied and kept their tiny living space. After the war, Keiko and her father returned home to California to rebuild their lives. Keiko went to college and became a teacher. In 1952, Mr. Higashi proudly became a U.S. citizen. Copyright 2016 by Tana Reiff Printable for classroom use.
Chapter 1 Happy New Year Think About It Sent Away Discussion Questions 1. What is your favorite holiday? Why? 2. Do you know of any foods that have meaning? 3. What are you thankful for? Chapter 2 Papa s Story 1. What is an important story in your family or group? 2. Why do you think there were laws against Japanese people in America? 3. How have you found a way to fill a need? Chapter 3 War with Japan 1. How would you clear out your house on short notice? 2. How do you feel about sending away a group of people only because they are from a different place? 3. If you had to go away and could take only what you could carry, what would you take? Chapter 4 The Race Track Camp 1. Do you think that life for the Higashi family will ever be the same? Why or why not? 2. How would you feel right now if you were Tatsu or Keiko? 3. Do you think the Higashi family should have been sent away during the war? Why or why not? Chapter 5 Camp Life 1. What makes life so hard at the race track camp? 2. Would you have stood up to the army police? Why or why not? 3. Do you think things will be better at the next camp? Why do you feel this way? Chapter 6 To the Desert 1. Mama always looks on the bright side. Do you know someone like that? 2. How do you deal with being in a bad place? 3. Do you feel that the Higashi family is getting a fair deal? Why or why not?
Chapter 7 Dust Everywhere 1. What do you think of the Higashi s apartment? 2. How is weather important to people s lives? 3. Why can it be hard to get used to something different? Chapter 8 New Friends 1. What are some ways to make a place into a home? 2. Why was it so important to make new friends at Poston? 3. How can a small thing like Keiko s flower bulb be so important? Chapter 9 A Question of Loyalty 1. Why do you think the U.S. government wanted the Japanese-Americans to answer loyalty questions? 2. Why were questions 27 and 28 hard for some people? 3. Why did young men like Tatsu join the U.S. Army? Chapter 10 The Star Flower 1. What do you think Keiko s flower means? 2. Why did Mama die? 3. What do you think will happen to the Higashi family now that Mama is gone? Chapter 11 Sad News 1. Where could Papa be? 2. What do you think the men who hit Papa were trying to show? 3. What can you do to help keep your family safe? Chapter 12 Starting Over 1. How would it feel to be sent away like the Higashi family? 2. What does it mean to start all over again? 3. Do you have something like Keiko s star flower in your life? Would you like to?
Sent Away New and Historical Photos for Discussion The Higashi family owned a California strawberry farm before World War II. Strawberry farming is hard work, work that many Americans did not want to do. The strawberry plants had to be cared for and the berries picked by hand. ID 14300750 Nmint Dreamstime.com Note: This and other modern photographs are from Dreamstime.com. The copyright is acknowledged after the caption. These pictures may be printed for classroom use. Or you can go to Dreamstime.com for others. The historic photos, many by famous photographer Dorothea Lange, are from a wonderful collection at Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley. The photos span the time from 1942 to 1945 at various internment camps around the U.S. operated by the War Relocation Authority. There are many sources on the internet, but this one from Public Intelligence is one of the best available: https://publicintelligence.net/japanese-internment-camps-war-relocation-authority-photos/ Another fine source of videos, photographs, and information on the relocation of the Japanese-Americans in WW II is the National Japanese American Memorial Foundation and their presentation Our Story. Your Rights. http://www.njamf.com We also recommend a powerful interview with actor and activist George Takei. In it, he recounts his family s experiences interned first at the Santa Anita racetrack and then at the Rohwer War Relocation Center in Rohwer, Arkansas. http://io9.gizmodo.com/george-takei-describes-his-experience-in-a-japanese-int-1533358984
Japanese food has become very popular all across America since the last few decades of the 20th century. Here are photographs of some of the special dishes the Higashi family shared to celebrate the New Year in 1941. Lotus root ID 12215371 Xiaowei Xu Dreamstime.com Lotus root ID 34793521 Lightmood1 Dreamstime.com Japanese chuka seaweed salad garnished with sesame seeds and lemon. ID 21071144 Aikidoki Dreamstime.com Fried dark green seaweed kim nori on a bamboo mat ID 34793521 Lightmood1 Dreamstime.com Black soy beans ID 71501381 Huizeng Hu Dreamstime.com
Bright pink steamed shrimp ID 58393158 Małgorzata Prabucka Dreamstime.com Japanese grilled prawns with lemon ID 65212610 Keymetric Dreamstime.com Grilled sea bass Japanese-stile ID 43490538 Kladoff Dreamstime.com Japanese-style grilled sanma fish with lemon ID 65212459 Keymetric Dreamstime.com
Historic photographs of Poston and other Japanese-American relocation camps from the Bancroft Library at the University of California at Berkeley https://publicintelligence.net/japanese-internment-camps-war-relocation-authority-photos/ Poston War Relocation Center, Arizona. 4/24/42 Aerial view of the War Relocation Center Poston, Arizona. 5/25/42
Noon on a hot day at the Stockton Assembly Center, which is a converted fairgrounds. This group of people on the race track are new arrivals who have been registered inspected, medically examined, and are now on their way to their assigned places in the barracks. Photographer: Dorothea Lange Stockton, California. 5/19/42 Looking down the rows of barracks westward. At extreme left is a corner of the dining hall where 275 to 300 residents of the block eat. At center background is the sanitation building including showers, lavatories, toilets, and washtubs. Nearly all the residents planted flowers and vegetable gardens in front of their barracks. Hunt, Idaho. 8/?/43 Following evacuation orders, this store, at 13th and Franklin Streets, was closed. The owner, a University of California graduate of Japanese descent, placed the I AM AN AMERICAN sign on the store front on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war. Photographer: Dorothea Lange Oakland, California. 3/13/42
Turlock, Calif. Evacuees of Japanese ancestry waiting their turn for baggage inspection for contraband, upon arrival at this Assembly point. They will then be assigned places in the barracks until transferred to a War Relocation Authority Center to spend the duration. Photographer: Dorothea Lange Turlock, California. 5/2/42 A typical interior scene in one of the barrack apartments at this center. Note the cloth partition, which lends a small amount of privacy. Photographer: Dorothea Lange Manzanar, California. 6/30/42 A few pieces of scrap, some additional mail order lumber, and the ingenuity of skilled hands have converted a bare barracks room into a home of some comfort. Many residents, such as the young Nisei family shown, have through their own ingenuity, bettered their living conditions within the center. Photographer: Tom Parker Heart Mountain, Wyoming. 1/7/43
Sent Away Detailed Plot Summary The Higasahi famiy is celebrating New Year s Day 1941 in their traditional fashion. The table is spread with special food symbolizing optimism for the future. A neighbor, Mrs. Finn, takes a picture of Mama and Papa with their son, Tatsu, and daughter, Keiko, both teenagers. After the big meal, Papa retells the story of how he left Japan as a boy for Hawaii to cut sugar cane. Then he came to northern California, where he picked vegetables along with the seasons. When he was ready to marry, he sent a picture of himself to his family back in Japan. They in turn sent him a picture of a young woman, and the marriage was recorded in Japan. Mama, the picture bride, then came to America. As a young man, Papa leased some land to grow strawberries, and then he and Mama opened a boarding house for the farmworkers and lived on the third floor. By 1941, despite laws against the Japanese in America, the Higashis are living a good life. Then in December of that year, Japan bombs Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and the United States enters World War II. On May 1, 1942, the Higashis, along with other Japanese people, must report to a church and go to an internment camp. They must stop farming, close up the boarding house, sell or store their belongings, and pack a few necessities all with only ten days notice. Keiko can t understand why this is happening, especially since she and Tatsu, having been born in the United States, are American citizens. A bus takes the Higashis to a race track converted to a temporary camp. The Higashis live in a former horse stall. Mama and Keiko must wait in line to wash their clothes. Then Tatsu hears that the army police are keeping confiscated goods (such as Mama s hot plate) for themselves. A crowd of young Japanese men take out their anger against the police. The result is only tighter control. Five months later, the interned Japanese are moved to Poston, a more permanent camp in the Arizona desert. While Mama assures Keiko that things will be all right, the girl is frightened. They are greeted at Poston by a barbed wire fence, the noises of a camp still under construction, and a terrible dust storm. The people are led into a crowded registration hall, checked over, interviewed about their skills, and given a list of camp rules. The living quarters are tiny apartments in blocks of tarpaper barracks. Determined to make the best of a bad situation, Mama tries to
keep the place clean, but it is a constant battle against frequent dust storms. Papa and Tatsu build some furniture to add to the cots provided. The weather is unbearably hot in the summer, cold in the winter. Yet Poston develops into a small city of sorts. Papa becomes a leader in the residents co-op, which starts small businesses at the camp. Keiko makes friends at school and school dances, and Tatsu falls in love with Keiko s friend Yoko. Still, there is never enough water, a stench hangs in the air, the barracks are constantly noisy, and flies spread disease. Mrs. Finn sends the Higashis baked goods and a flower bulb, which Keiko plants by the apartment door. Trouble brews when a man from the War Department comes to register the residents. His questions regarding their loyalty to the U.S. government raise the ire of Japanese people such as Papa, a citizen of Japan, not permitted to become a citizen of the United States. Tatsu shows his loyalty by signing up for a new, all-japanese army unit and leaves the camp for basic training, despite having to leave his beloved Yoko. Keiko s flower bulb finally pushes a shoot through the ground. As Keiko wait for it to bloom, Mama gets ill; there are always flies on their food. Three days later Mama dies. The same day, Keiko s flower blooms in the shape of a star. Then word comes that Tatsu has been killed in Italy. Papa and Keiko stoically go on with their lives. Keiko is afraid of a militant anti-american faction in the camp, and then Papa is attacked on his way home from a meeting one night. Keiko visits him everyday in the hospital until he is released. At last the war is over. It is time to leave the camp. Keiko takes along her star flower. Papa leaves reluctantly, having enjoyed his work at the coop. They head back to California to start a new life. Trying to apply Mama s optimism, Keiko tells her father, Things will work out. Papa gets a job in a store, and Keiko goes to college to become a teacher. The government reimburses them 15 cents on the dollar for their losses when they left for the camps. In 1952, when Japanese immigrants are finally allowed U.S. citizenship, Papa decides to become a citizen. Keiko throws him a big party, much like the dinner at the beginning of the story. Keiko goes on to marry and have two children, and Papa lives with her family. And, reminding Keiko of Mama, Tatsu, and the camp, the star flower blooms every year.
Sent Away Historical Background Significant numbers of Japanese immigrants began arriving in the United States between 1890 and 1900. Mostly laborers, they were admitted to the country only after showing evidence that someone already here would pay their passage home if they became incapacitated. Emigration companies posted this bond and supplied agricultural workers to farmers in Hawaii and California, at a high price to the immigrants. Thus many Japanese entered this country virtually as indentured servants, already deep in debt. While most Japanese immigrants were farm workers, some worked on the railroad or in construction, building houses and hotels, and many worked in northern California s logging, mining, and meat-packing industries, as well as in canneries. By 1905, increasing anti-japanese sentiment had surfaced in newspaper headlines. A series of actions against the Japanese in America ensued. Besides not being allowed to become United States citizens, all Asian children were banned from the public schools of San Francisco in 1906. An Oriental school was formed, but it was closed in 1940 when the Japanese-American Citizens League persuaded the school board to desegregate the public schools. Laws also prevented the Japanese from owning agricultural land, but many Issei (of the first generation) leased land or bought it in their Nisei (second generation) children s names. Japanese growers specialized in crops such as strawberries, artichokes, asparagus, and other fruits and vegetables that Americans found too backbreaking to grow. At the same time, Japanese agricultural labor contractors were underbidding Chinese and white workers to gain a virtual monopoly in the migrant labor market. A Japanese man looking for a wife would send a photograph of himself back to Japan, where his family would find him a bride, send her picture to the groom, record the marriage in Japan, and then ship the picture bride to America. The landmark Johnson-Reed Immigration Act of 1924 halted the arrival of virtually all new Japanese, as well as Chinese and Koreans, until immigrant quotas were extended in 1949.
With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, and the United States entry into World War II, feelings against the Japanese in America reached their apex. Between March and May 1942, the U.S. goverment ordered 110,000 Japanese living in West Coast states two thirds of whom were U.S. citizens to be evacuated to camps hastily constructed for their internment. The action was called a military necessity. People were given as litte as 48 hours notice to leave everything behind and report to meeting points, from which they were bused to assembly centers, such as converted racetracks, fairgrounds, and stadiums. They stayed there for months until the more permanent relocation centers were completed. There were ten of these camps: Manzanar and Tule Lake, California; Poston and Gila River, Arizona; Topaz, Utah; Minidoka, Idaho; Granada, Colorado; Heart Mountain, Wyoming; and Rohwer and Jerome, Arkansas. The Japanese relocation story is a disgraceful episode in American history. While the government perceived the Japanese to be a risk to national security, the Japanese themselves felt remarkably loyal to the United States, cooperating with the evacuation to prove it. Problems arose in the camps, however, when the government required the captive Japanese to sign ambiguous loyalty pledges (the infamous Questions #27 and #28 of the questionnaire). Those who refused to sign were sent to Tule Lake, which became known as the troublemakers camp. Meanwhile, 26,000 Japanese joined the U.S. armed forces, and the 442nd Infantry Regiment Combat Team serving in Italy became one of the most decorated units in American military history. At the end of the war, the internees were released to start their lives over again. Some returned to California, but many others scattered to other parts of the country. The government allowed them to apply for restitution for property lost or confiscated during the war, but they were paid only about 15 cents on the dollar. It was not until 1990 that the U.S. government provided $1.25 billion in reparations to Japanese-Americans who had been relocated and interned nearly 50 years earlier. At that time, U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh formally apologized for the government s actions during that time. In 1952, the Japanese in America were finally allowed to become citizens. Since the end of World War II and into the 21st century, Japanese- Americans have been generally successful in all the arts and a variety of professions and businesses.
Name What Did You Read? Write the answers to these questions about Sent Away. 1. What holiday was the big dinner for at the beginning of the story? 2. Why did Papa have to find a picture bride? 3. What two businesses did the Higashis run? 4. What happened on December 7, 1941? 5. What was one reason the Japanese in America were sent away? 6. Why did Papa say they would leave their home without a fight? 7. What was going on when the Higashi family got to Poston? 8. What happened to both Mama and Tatsu in the story? 9. What was one reason Papa was not in a hurry to leave Poston? 10. What did Papa and Keiko do with their lives after the war? 11. When did Keiko throw a big party for Papa? 12. What helped Keiko remember her mother and brother every year?
Name Book Review Book Title Student s Name The people in this book came from I read this book because Is this book interesting? Why or why not? The best part of the story is The worst part of the story is My favorite person in the story is because The main thing I learned from this book is that Too many hard words? yes / no Examples: Too many long sentences? yes / no Examples: The length of the books is: too long / too short / about right Tell a friend to read this book? yes / no Why?
Name Word Play: Happy Endings In each line a, turn the word with no ending into an -ing word and then into a word with an -er ending. Next, complete each sentence in line b with one of the three words in line a. Numbers 1a and 1b are done for you. 1a. board boarding boarder 1b. The Higashi family ran a boarding house for the farmworkers. 2a. bomb 2b. The Japanese were Pearl Harbor. 3a. eat 3b. Tatsu was a big. 4a. grow 4b. Mr. Higashi was a strawberry. 5a. pick 5b. He had to strawberries from the vine. 6a. point 6b. What is the of the story? 7a. run 7b. The co-op was small businesses at the camp. 8a. work 8b. Sometimes Mama was a in the camp bank. Take note: The words with no ending show that something is happening at the present time. The -er words tell about a person who is doing something. (An -er ending can also mean more than.) The -ing words came after another action word (verb) or before a person, place, thing, or idea (noun).
Name Fill in the Blanks Review Activity To the parents of my 4th grade class. This morning one of my students me when I came to America. When I told her I was here in northern California just as she was, she looked surprised and said, But you don t American. I explained to the class that my came from Japan and that my Tatsu and I were born and that I am an. They wanted to know where my is, and so I explained that he was in Italy during the war fighting for our. I asked them if their fathers had in the war, and most of you had. I didn t feel that I should more of my with them today, but I want to share it briefly with you, so you can their questions. Keiko Higashi Miller October 10, 1955 Note to the teacher: The rest of Keiko s letter to the parents of her students is given on the next page. It can be used as a listening activity or for reading, followed by discussion and/ or writing. Of course, Keiko s opinions do not represent those of all the Japanese-Americans who where interned during WW II; the letter was intended to encourage her students families to think and discuss what America did.
To the parents of my 4th grade class. Full text of the fill in the blanks review activity This morning one of my students asked me when I came to America. When I told her I was born here in northern California just as she was, she looked surprised and said, But you don t look American. I explained to the class that my parents came from Japan and that my brother Tatsu and I were born here and that I am an American citizen. They wanted to know where my brother is, and so I explained that he was killed in Italy during the war fighting for our country. I asked them if their fathers had fought in the war, and most of you had. I didn t feel that I should share more of my story with them today, but I want to share it briefly with you, so you can answer their questions. I grew up on my parents strawberry farm living in the boarding house they kept for farmworkers. We were as shocked and angry as all other Americas were when the terrible Japanese govenment bombed Hawaii, where my Papa had lived as a boy. But then our government sent my family away to Poston, a relocation camp in hot, dusty Arizona. My mother got sick and died there. We had lost our home and business, but most of us understood why our fellow Americans were so angry and afraid; we felt the same way, except that we were ashamed of the Japanese dictators. We felt that our American government had betrayed some of its most important values, those in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, but we understood that in a Democracy the government the must follow the people; we had faith that we would have justice in time. So we lived as well as we could at Poston, and since the war we have forgiven what was done to us, and we are proud of what our country and allies did defeating Japan, Italy, where my brother died, and Nazi Germany. I am writing to you because, as your children s teacher, I want you to know how important I feel it is to be honest about the past, and to work hard for the future by teaching them our American values. Keiko Higashi Miller October 10, 1955
Answer Key The What Did You Read? questions may sometimes be answered in more than one way. The answers given below should serve as guidelines for accepting the students answers. The answers to the Word Play exercise should be exactly as given in this answer key, except where specifically noted. What Did You Read? 1. New Year s 2. because there were few Japanese women in California when Papa was a young man 3. a strawberry farm and boarding house 4. Japan bombed Pearl Harbor (in Hawaii). The United States got into World War II. 5. because some people felt that anyone from Japan was on the wrong side of the war / because some felt that the Japanese were working for the Japanese government / because the government said it was for the Japanese people s own safety. 6. to show they are with the Americans / to show their loyalty to the U.S. 7. a dust storm 8. They both die. (Mama died from a disease. Tatsu was killed in the war.) 9. because he enjoyed working for the co-op / because he made dear friends at the camp / because the family had lost everything when they were sent away 10. Papa worked in a store; Keiko became a teacher. 11. when Papa became a U.S. citizen. 12. the star flower Word Play: Happy Endings 2b. bombing 3b. eater 4b. grower 5b. pick 6b. point 7b. running 8b. worker