Teaching About World War II During World War II

LupineMoon

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I'm finally in grad school getting to the beginning stages of my life's work writing about Japanese-American history. One of my final papers is (very broadly) about how World War II was taught during the war. I've gotten a few sources, like "how to teach social studies" written during the 40's and don't have a lot of time to go rooting for sources at present, but will expand on this paper next semester.

Initially it was going to be on children's books about the war published during the war, but there wasn't enough to go on. I was wondering if anyone knew of/had heard from relatives of either of those aspects. Or if anyone knew of any first-hand accounts that discussed the subject. Thanks for your help!
 

frimble3

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I don't know that they 'taught' about the war (any war) during the war. It's hard to get a dispassionate, well-researched view of things-as-they-happen. My dad was taught to knit for the troops when he was a kid, but he didn't mention classes about it. If anything, I suppose it would have been in 'Current Events' or discussions of the news. Did they have that back then?

It would probably also depend on the age of the students, and the country they were in. Teenagers could understand more than small children, etc.
Before the U.S. entered the war, it would be sort of a theoretical 'stuff from around the world', while in Canada, with our going in earlier, it would be more 'our boys are fighting here and here'.
 
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TellMeAStory

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Surely it would be Current Events, but also look into Science, as back then, Mendel's experiments with heredity were a slippery slope into the subject of race, which was a slippery slope into defining the characteristics of race including temperament and loyalty and all those elements that made it perfectly scientifically logical to distrust those of Japanese descent.
 

Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

What I can tell you is that my mother wrote a paper against the Japanese relocation for an English class, and the teacher gave her an F on that paper and a B for the whole class, although my mother was a straight A student otherwise. (Mom didn't knit for the armed forces; she worked for Boeing during the summers...and was appalled that the unions required her to say the words "chinks, niggers and kikes" for people not to be admitted into the union. My apologies for the exact quote. She said the words with her fingers crossed behind her back, because she wanted to help the war effort.)

This isn't what you're talking about, but in case it comes in handy, my husband used to have the cards that h used his father used for teaching civilian spotters the differences between Japanese and American aircraft.

Not quite what you were after, but maybe these details will help.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal