This collection serves as a digital companion to a Cultivating Learning professional development session with Lynn Yamasaki, Director of Education at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) in Los Angeles, exploring the unjust, forced removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast during World War II. Session participants practice techniques to examine primary source materials from JANM’s collection including government-issued documents, artwork, and personal histories to introduce this topic to students. This session focuses on close looking and critical thinking to consider the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans and how it is that such a massive violation of rights happened within our democracy. Participants gain classroom-ready resources to share with students, as well as transferable strategies to use with primary source documents.

Cultivating Learning is an interactive webinar series focusing on techniques to use digital museum resources for learning. Check out Cultivating Learning and other Smithsonian Learning Lab webinars: https://learninglab.si.edu/help