Ken Mochizuki is a novelist, journalist, and an actor. A native of Seattle, Washington, he received his bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. His parents were sent to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. He got his inspiration for Baseball Saved Us reading a magazine article about an Issei (first generation Japanese American) man who built a baseball diamond and formed a league within the camps.

Dom Lee is a native of Seoul, South Korea. He received his bachelor's degree in fine arts from Seoul National University and his master's degree from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He lives in New Jersey. The illustrations for Baseball Saved Us were rendered by applying encaustic beeswax on paper, then scratching out images, and finally adding oil paint for color. Some of Dom's illustrations were inspired by photographs taken by Ansel Adams in 1943, from the Library of Congress collection.

Background

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, the United States was gripped by war hysteria. This was especially strong along the Pacific coast of the U.S., where residents feared more Japanese attacks on their cities, homes, and businesses. Leaders in California, Oregon, and Washington, demanded that the residents of Japanese ancestry be removed from their homes along the coast and relocated in isolated inland areas. As a result of this pressure, on February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. More than two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the United States, and none had ever shown any disloyalty. The War Relocation Authority was created to administer the assembly centers, relocation centers, and internment camps, and relocation of Japanese-Americans began in April 1942. Internment camps were scattered all over the interior West, in isolated desert areas of Arizona, California, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming, where Japanese-Americans were forced to carry on their lives under harsh conditions. Executive Order 9066 was rescinded by President Roosevelt in 1944, and the last of the camps was closed in March, 1946.

This information is from the following web site: http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/9066.htm

Monday

Before you read the students the story, give a brief history of the internment camps. (Internment camps are similar to jail or prison)

Tell the students that they are being transported to an internment camp.  Place a suitcase in the center of the floor and have students brainstorm a list of items that they would like to bring to camp that would fit into a suitcase.  It must fit into the suitcase.  Depending on the age of the students, they can write their own individual list, work in mixed age groups or make a group list on chart paper. 

Have students examine the cover of the book, the title, and the first few pages of Baseball Saved Us. Then ask them to brainstorm what they think the book will be about.

Read the story.

Discuss the following questions:

Have students justify their answers.

You might want them to discuss this question, depending on the age of the students: Ken Mochizuki, the author of Baseball Saved Us, is the son of parents who were sent to an internment camp during World War II. Their experiences in the Camp inspired him to write this story. Have your parents or grandparents had experiences you would like to share?  Share the stories as a group.

Discuss what they would need versus what they would want. Students may rethink their list of things to take to the internment camp with want versus need in mind.

Tuesday

Read the Baseball Saved Us a second time with the students listening for baseball terms. I tell the students that although they heard the story yesterday, today they have a special purpose while reading, to listen for baseball terms.  I tend to emphasize these words a little while reading, especially if they group is primary.

Work with students on a word wall or word web for baseball terms, since many students may be unfamiliar with the terminology. Word wall is a terminology list.  In a word web, write the word BASEBALL on a large piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Then have students generate all the baseball-related terms they can think of. Be sure to elicit terms that appear in the text: bleachers, baseball field, bats, balls, gloves, team, infield, catcher, base, inning, strike, hit, no hitter, pitcher, home plate.

If you have time, get some balls and baseball mitts and play catch or use some yarn balls or Koosh balls to play catch.

Older students can research the following: The United States government recently apologized to Japanese Americans for the injustice done to them during World War II. Ask students to find out what actions the government took to make reparations for this injustice. Students will report to the group what they have learned.  Write an explanation of the need for an apology and what the government did in the form of an apology.

Here is a letter send by President Bush: http://www.lib.utah.edu/spc/photo/9066/t38.htm

Wednesday

Have a short workshop for the students on how to use a digital camera. They will need to know the following:

1.      Wrap the camera strap around your neck or wrist.

2.      When you hold the camera up to take a picture, pull your elbows into your sides – it’s helps keep the camera steady.

3.      Show students how to zoom, shutter button, on/off button, how to remove their disk, and how to delete unwanted pictures.

*Ensure all cameras are taking pictures in black and white prior to letting the students take pictures.

Explain to the students that their favorite picture will be matted and given to some community members to judge for a digital camera contest.  We use the Senior Meal participants to judge at our local VFW. You can give prizes – maybe the top three pictures or just the glory of having a great picture. 

Students are to take black and white still life pictures of baseball items: field, bats, balls, gloves, bases, cleat, and hitting T.  We take 2-3 students at a time to take pictures. Students will need to take about 5 pictures and choose one for printing off in black and white.

While the small groups are out taking pictures, have student cut out of poster board, black frames for their pictures to be mounted in. Label each picture with the student’s name and age on the back.

Thursday

As you read the book, stop to look at the illustrations.  Discuss the illustrations.  How did the illustrator use color to impact his pictures? Explain the process of how the illustrations were done:

The illustrations for Baseball Saved Us were done by applying beeswax on paper, then scratching out images, and finally adding oil paint for color. Some of Dom Lees's illustrations were inspired by photographs taken by Ansel Adams in 1943, from the Library of Congress collection.  (You can have some Ansel Adams prints available to view.)

Show the students photographs of the Japanese internment camps showing daily life of the prisoners.

Explain to the students that they will be using crayons to outline a picture from some part of the story, Baseball Saved Us that Dom Lee may or may not have included in the book, or from photographs of the Japanese internment camps. Once the outline is done, have the students use tempera or acrylics to add color to their pictures but beware acrylics can stain clothes permanently.

An optional method of doing the outline is to take a griddle or skillet and put the temperature on low/medium.  Line the bottom with foil.  If the hotplate/griddle has sides, lay a towel around the edges to avoid getting burned.  Place you paper on the foil and take a sharp black crayon and slowly move the crayon to draw your outline.  This technique makes the black lines very dark.  The crayon will melt as you move and the temperature may have to be adjusted to keep it form getting too hot and making blobs.

While the students are working, ask the students to create a group Venn diagram showing similarities between Shorty and the students.

Friday

Set up a display with the book, word web/word wall, matted photos, and illustrations in the community.  We use the post office as our art gallery, where people come in to get their mail form their PO box.

Go to the gym or baseball field to play baseball or a modified version of baseball.

Additional Resource for BASEBALL SAVED US:

PBS Documentary: http://www.pbs.org/childofcamp/

Photos of Dorothea Lange of internment camps.  Large photos in PowerPoint: http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist8/ppoint.html

HEROES – WEEK TWO

Introducing the book:

Donnie is tired of playing the bad guy every time he and his friends get together to play war. According to the other kids, Donnie should play the enemy: after all, as a Japanese American, he looks like "them."

When he argues that his family served in the U.S. Army, Donnie's friends dare him to prove it. But when he asks his father and uncle for proof, they tell him that kids should play something besides war. "Real heroes don't brag," Uncle Yosh says. "They just do what they are supposed to do."

Set against the backdrop of the 1960s, and a new conflict in Vietnam, this story explores how one family deals with the painful legacy of war.

Monday:

Short follow-up on the internment camps that we studied last week in the book Baseball Saved Us and the anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States after the Japanese returned from the camps. 

Information:

Americans of Japanese and Asian descent are known to have served in the U.S. armed forces since the Spanish-American War. During World War II, about 33,000 Americans of Japanese descent served in the U.S. military. The most famous were the members of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

In 1943, young Japanese American men volunteered to serve in the U.S. armed forces, though they and their families were imprisoned in American concentration camps. They were in these camps because they were not considered Americans, many of these young men reasoned, and fighting for their country would prove they were as American as anyone else. About 20,000 volunteered from the camps. Some became members of the Military Intelligence Service, in which they served as interpreters and interrogators for U.S. forces in the Pacific. But many were sent to and trained at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Since the U.S. Army was still segregated, they became the all-Japanese American 442nd.

In 1944, the 442nd was sent to Italy, where they joined the 100th Battalion, a unit composed entirely of Japanese Americans from Hawaii. They fought some of the toughest battles against the Germans in Italy, and are most remembered for rescuing the "Lost Battalion," a U.S. Army unit from Texas trapped by the Germans in the mountains of northeastern France. During that mission, the 442nd suffered 1,400 casualties to rescue 270 of the "Lost Battalion."

The 442nd received 18,143 individual decorations, including one Congressional Medal of Honor, and seven Presidential Unit Citations, making it one of the most highly decorated units in U.S. Army history.

Pre-reading questions:

 Ensure the students use adjectives and other describing words to answer these questions and write them on the board to be saved all week or make Word Wall with words we will use all week or need to refer back to during the project.

• Can you think of some people you consider to be heroes? What characterizes a hero?
• Have you ever played role-playing games with friends? How do you decide who gets to be which part?
• Do you know anyone who has served in the military? Have they ever shared their experiences with you?

Read the book, Heroes.

After reading the story, have a discussion on the book:  Here are some questions to guide your discussion:

§        The other children taunted Donnie and made him play the part of the enemy. Why? Was this fair or unfair? Why? Is looking like an enemy enough to make someone an enemy?

§        Donnie's friends did not believe that Donnie's father and uncle could fight in "their" army. Why did they think that it was "their" army, to Donnie's exclusion?

§        Does someone have to be a hero to be valuable or important?

§        Do you think Donnie's friends were good friends? Why or why not?

Ask the students to design their won medal they would give to someone who was a hero or even each student’s hero.  This can be drawn on a piece of paper, created 3D with model magic, only let the children’s imagination limit their creativity.

Tuesday:

Have a guest speaker from the military (retired or currently enlisted) talk to the students about how and why they joined. Also, they might share stories and participate in a question and answer time.

After your speaker leaves, have the students make a Thank You poster for your speaker. Ask the students to write three facts they learned about during his/her presentation. (Save for Friday)

Wednesday

Walk up into the Outdoor classroom (or any area with brush and tress) and play WAR (taken from the book Heroes.)  with the students.  Have the teacher choose students to be the enemy. Come together in a circle and discuss how the “enemy” felt during the game.

Change to the cooperative game of Thicket.  Play several rounds.  Then again in a circle talk about the differences in the games and the emotions in both games and any connections the students can make to the story Heroes.

Rules to Thicket: This is an all time favorite of our students!

We use a triangle shaped area that is forested, but any area with obstacles will work.  (playground equipment is fine too but an area with tall grass, bushes and trees is more entertaining).   Usually the triangle area is 30 yards on each side with the student who is IT at one of the points.  Explain the playing area before you begin.  You may want to mark the area with flagging tape or cones for the first few games.

One person is IT.  That person hides their eyes and counts to fifty.  Student then go hide in a forested area.  The IT opens their eyes, raises their hand with a number and asks students if they can see the hand.  (Sometimes we ask the students to call out the number being held up – everyone should be able to see the IT when hiding).  The IT then tries to find the people hiding without moving their feet (we have students stand on a stump).  They must name the student and tell where they are hiding.  If the IT is wrong, the person stays hidden.  If correct, the found person must come up and stand by the IT and NOT speak or make hand gestures to help the IT.

Once the IT finds all that he/she can see, the IT closes their eyes and counts to 15 with eyes closed.  Those who are hidden must move closer to the IT and hide in a new hiding place. Once the IT’s eyes are open they again look for those who are hidden.  This cycle continues.

Thursday
Tell the story, Heroes to the group.  Make a Venn Diagram with the characteristics of a bully, friends and what they have in common.  Here are some questions to prompt thought.

• Do you ever feel picked on at school? For what? What do you do about it? Do you pick on someone? For what?
• Have you found that other people expect you to behave a certain way because of the way you look? What ways? How do you respond?
• Are you surprised by the way that Donnie was treated? Why or why not?
• Donnie and his friends looked up to war heroes. Who do you look up to? What about that person or those people do you admire?
• How do you choose your friends? What traits do you consider important in a friend?

Have the students write an acrostic poem as a group on Bullying and individually on Friends.

Friday 

Set-up a display of the book, medals, poem, Thank You poster, and word wall drawn from the week to be set up in the hallway or lunchroom for the following week to be shared with the rest of the school.