Hawaii Teacher Training Institute Held
The Go For Broke National Education Center, in partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, held its inaugural teacher training institute in Hawaii entitled, Looking Like the Enemy, Japanese Americans in World War II Hawaii, on October 8 - 10, 2009 in Honolulu. The institute brought together 21 teachers from Oahu, Maui and Hawaii to spend three intensive days of study on the experience of Japanese Americans in Hawaii during World War II. Held at Theodore Roosevelt High School on Oahu, the institute provided teachers with the tools and training to teach World War II history in social studies and modern Hawaiian history courses through the experiences of Hawaii Japanese Americans. By equipping teachers with curriculum, primary and secondary resource materials and local sites for field trips, the institute equipped the teachers to share the story of the Japanese American experience from the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the end of the war and into the occupation of Japan.
Additionally, the institute gave teachers a broader perspective in looking at a mainstream historical event. Using the perspective of one ethnic group, the institute provided a lens in looking at history through a non-military and government perspective. This allowed an opportunity to connect the story with an experience that students could be personalize. Ensuring the subject being taught is relevant to the students’ own life experiences would offer much more than just memorizing facts and dates.
The teachers were also taken on a field trip to the site of the Honouliuli internment camp located on the west side of the island. Staff and volunteers from the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii gave a tour and provided some insight on what life was like for the Japanese Americans held there.
Following the trip to Honouliuli, the group toured the Nisei soldiers exhibit, Honoring the Legacy, which is housed at the downtown Honolulu branch of Central Pacific Bank. The exhibit was organized as a joint effort by the sons and daughters of the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, Military Intelligence Service, and 1399th Engineer Construction Battalion. Sponsored by the bank, teachers and veterans lunched and talked informally about the their WWII experiences.
Responses from the teachers were extremely positive, some remarking that the highlight was having the opportunity to meet the veterans. One teacher also stated that she would now be able to teach WWII history in a whole new way. Planning for the 2010 institute is underway, dates to be announced.
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