Teaching About Japanese-American Internment

Although many state and national U.S. history standards include the Japanese-American internment experience, more often than not it is a topic that is treated without nuance. Because of spatial considerations, many U.S. history textbooks condense this historical episode into no more than a few pages, at best. As a result, textbooks are forced to emphasize certain historical themes and to abandon others. This digest offers suggestions on the teaching of Japanese-American internment as a supplement to current textbook offerings on the subject.