Two families on one farm in southern California connect two pieces of World War II history. The Munemitsu family was caught up in the U.S. incarceration of Japanese Americans; the Mendez family's children were sent to separate schools for Mexican American students. The National Park Service's Entangled Inequalities project tells their story together, and three classroom lessons follow it through the lens of education.
Two girls at the Poston incarceration camp in Arizona. National Archives.
The three lessons
| Lesson | What students explore |
|---|---|
| 1. Education inequalities in Japanese incarceration camps | the Munemitsu children and other Japanese American students at the Poston camp and other incarceration camps — and, through their schooling, the wider injustice of incarceration |
| 2. Education inequalities in California schools | the Mendez family and other Mexican American children sent to separate schools before and during the war, and the Mendez family's fight for civil rights |
| 3. Entangled education inequalities | both families side by side, asking students to argue about the importance and future of educational equality |
The first two lessons stand alone; the third ties them together. They draw on the article series Entangled Inequalities: Japanese Incarceration and Mendez, et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al., which students can also use for their own research.
A school under construction at Poston. National Archives.
Sylvia Mendez, one of the Mendez children, in later life. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For teachers
- Period: World War II. Topics: segregation, Latino history, Asian American and Pacific Islander history, civil rights.
- Standards: U.S. History Era 8 (the causes and course of the war and the home front) and Era 9 (the struggle for racial and gender equality); social studies themes of time and change, identity, institutions, power and civic ideals; Common Core literacy standards for grades 6–8 on sources, vocabulary, visual evidence and argument writing.
- More lessons are at Teaching with Historic Places.
Sources
Based on "A Series of Lessons on Entangled Inequalities in World War II" from the National Park Service, a work of the United States government in the public domain. The lessons were written by Alison Russell, educator and consulting historian with the Cultural Resource Office of Interpretation and Education, funded through the National Council on Public History's cooperative agreement with the NPS; the Entangled Inequalities project was developed in 2022–2023 by interns and fellows of the same office.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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