SEEN AND UNSEEN
Grades 5 and Up
Elizabeth Partridge
Chronicle Books, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-45216-510-3
132 pp.
Summary
The story of the World War II incarceration of Japanese-Americans in internment camps is told through the eyes of three very different photographers: Dorothea Lange, who opposed the camps; Toyo Miyatake, a professional photographer and camp inmate; and Ansel Adams, who favored the Japanese-American imprisonment. This creatively designed book combines the original photographs with drawings, quotations, text, and reproductions of historical documents.
Curriculum Connections
History
The United States entered World War II after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Research the attack. Why did the Japanese decide to attack Pearl Harbor? Why was the United States caught by surprise?
Blinick, Naomi. Beneath Pearl Harbor: Young Reader Edition. Best Publishing, 2018.
Messner, Kate. History Smashers: Pearl Harbor. Random House, 2021.
Serrano, Christy. The Attack on Pearl Harbor. Capstone, 2021.
Tarshis, Lauren. I Survived the Bombing of Pearl Harbor, 1941. Scholastic, 2011.
Research ways in which Japanese-Americans contributed to the war effort during World War II. From the National World War II Museum, see Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in World War II.
Sadly the public reaction to Japanese-Americans during World War II is not an isolated incident. During World War I, German-Americans were discriminated against and persecuted and since the terrorist attacks of 9-11, American Muslims have suffered from prejudice and violence. Find photographs that show examples of these occurrences. Propose ways of preventing this from happening.
Using images from the Internet, create a scrapbook that demonstrates different attitudes toward a historical event. For example, show the Vietnam War from the points of view of soldiers in the field, protestors at home, and politicians.
Science
Find out how a camera works. Draw a diagram or make an infographic. See How Cameras Work.
Art
Learn more about the work of Dorothea Lange, Toyo Miyatake, and Ansel Adams. What other famous photographers do you know? For example, check out the work of Diane Arbus, Margaret Bourke White, Robert Capa, and Lewis Hine.
Try taking a series of photographs that tell a story. Depending on which pictures you choose, can you make your story positive or negative?
Discussion Questions
How would you have reacted to forced incarceration if you had been a Japanese-American during World War II? How would you have responded to the Loyalty Questionnaire? (For information and the complete text of the Loyalty Questionnaire, see here.)
How did Japanese-Americans cope with life in the internment camps?
Why was the Japanese-American community undecided about receiving reparations after the war? (See a discussion here.)
Should people in the present be paid reparations for historical wrongs? African-Americans for slavery? Native Americans for the theft of their lands? Why or why not? How would you decide who should receive payments? How much should people be paid?
Why is the book titled Seen and Unseen?
How can photographs be used to deceive the public?
For a discussion, see Photography's Chilling History of Deception.
Author Online
Elizabeth Partridge, author of eighteen award-winning books, grew up in extended San Francisco Bohemian family of photographers. She has a degree in Women’s Studies from the University of California at Berkeley and later studied traditional Chinese medicine. She worked as an acupuncturist for twenty years before closing her practice to write fulltime. Find her on Instagram.
Companion Books
Farewell to Manzanar
Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston (Clarion, 2017)
A first-person account of the author's family’s life in the Japanese internment camp of Manzanar.
Journey to Topaz
Yoshiko Uchido (Heyday, 2022)
After Pearl Harbor, eleven-year-old Yuki’s father is arrested, and she, her brother, and her mother are sent to a bleak internment camp in the Utah desert.
Stealing Home
J. Torres (Kids Can Press, 2021)
This graphic novel tells the story of Sandy, moved with his family to an internment camp, where he copes with sadness and trouble through baseball.
Under the Blood-Red Sun
Graham Salisbury (Ember, 2014)
Tomi and friends in Hawaii are more interested in their baseball team, the Rats, than in World War II – until Pearl Harbor, after which Tomi’s father and grandfather are arrested.
Gaijin: American Prisoner of War
Matt Faulkner (Little, Brown, 2019)
This graphic novel describes the experiences of Koji Miyamoto, with a white mother and Japanese father, who was sent to an interment camp after Pearl Harbor. There he found that being half white in the camp was just as difficult as being half Japanese on the outside.
Paper Wishes
Lois Sepahban (Square Fish, 2017)
Ten-year-old Manami is sad to leave her home to go to an internment camp – but broken-hearted when she’s forced to abandon her dog.
They Called Us Enemy
George Takei (First Edition, 2019)
A graphic memoir of George Takei’s childhood in an American prison camp during World War II.