Education

Schools were quickly organized in the concentration camps, but they suffered from crude facilities and lack of teaching materials. Instruction was given for nursery through high school, and adult education was offered. Trained teachers were in short supply, however, and uncertified Japanese Americans with college degrees often filled in. The War Relocation Authority (WRA) deliberately emphasized Americanization in the education program. Some found it painfully ironic to watch incarcerated youth recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

World War II (231)
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Education (1448)

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1448 items

img High school girls studying (ddr-densho-39-37)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-39-37/

img Schoolchildren (ddr-densho-39-38)

Original museum description: Photograph, black and white glossy of a scene in Minidoka, Idaho[,] internment camp showing school children marching or parading near the barracks. There are two women white teachers and another adult woman at the rear. Some of the children are carrying American flags, and the flagpole in the back is at half staff. …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-39-38/

img High school students cleaning up outside of Topaz High School (ddr-densho-392-52)

Caption on reverse: "H.S. clean up week. / 3-5-43 # HS 36 / Billie Oshima and his crew in action on clean-up day at the Topaz High School."

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-392-52/

doc Topaz High School graduation announcement (ddr-densho-392-77)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-392-77/

doc Topaz High School graduation announcement (ddr-densho-392-76)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-392-76/

doc Amache High School Onlooker yearbook (ddr-densho-390-150)

The 1944 edition of the Amache High School yearbook, Onlooker, belonging to Walter Matsuoka. Walter is included in the freshman class portraits. The yearbook includes several handwritten messages and signatures.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-390-150/

doc Walter Matsuoka's junior high school diploma (ddr-densho-390-18)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-390-18/

img Kindergarten class at Poston (ddr-densho-391-23)

Photograph of a Kindergarden class at Poston. Hatsuko Mary (Yoshioka) Higuchi is in the middle row on the far right, Etsuko Yoshioka in the front row on the far right.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-391-23/

doc Kenneth Iyeki's Topaz High School diploma (ddr-densho-392-54)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-392-54/

doc Page of Hisa Nimura Horiuchi Scrapbook (ddr-densho-325-37)

This page of the scrapbook shows documents from two distinct periods of Hisa's wartime life. At the top is the form where Hisa formally requests to drop out of high school after her father is forced to move to the Santa Fe Department of Justice Internment Camp after being branded a trouble maker. While not directly …

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-325-37/

doc Memoirs 1944 (ddr-densho-348-11)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-348-11/

img Nursery school child (ddr-densho-37-164)

Original WRA caption: Little nursery school girl singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-164/

img Camp classroom (ddr-densho-37-204)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-204/

img Camp classroom (ddr-densho-37-203)

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-203/

img Kindergarten class (ddr-densho-37-382)

Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Segregation Center, Newell, California. A kindergarten class at the Tule Lake Center on the playground.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-382/

img Grammar school (ddr-densho-37-174)

Original WRA caption: A view in grammer school at this relocation center.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-174/

img Camp art exhibit (ddr-densho-37-319)

Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Relocation Center, Newell, California. An evacuee girl proudly shows friends her art work which was on display in the exhibit shows held on labor day.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-319/

img Nursery school (ddr-densho-37-163)

Original WRA caption: Nursery school children with model barracks.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-163/

img High school graduation (ddr-densho-37-325)

Original WRA caption: Tule Lake Segregation Center, Newell, California. Guy Ceek, assistant high school principal of Tri-State High School at Tule Lake Center, hands out honor awards at commencement exercises June 16. This was the first commencement since segregation.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-325/

img Camp high school brass band (ddr-densho-37-533)

Original WRA caption: Rohwer Relocation Center, McGehee, Arkansas. A part of the brass section of the High School Band, at the Rohwer Center. The students learning to play instruments for the band are former Californians, who, with their parents, were evacuated from stratiegic west coast areas.

https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-37-533/