Subject:  Modern Literature
Topic: WWII/Japanese Americans
Grade Level:  12th
Student Lesson name and URL:  Snow Falling on Cedars

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2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics)

2.4 Write historical investigation reports:

b. Analyze several historical records of a single event, examining critical relationships between elements of the research topic.

2.6 Deliver multimedia presentations:

11.7 Students analyze America's participation in World War II.

5. Discuss the constitutional issues and impact of events on the U.S. homefront, including the internment of Japanese-Americans (e.g., Fred Korematsu v. United States of America)

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1.   Pre-test
2.  Students will watch the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars" and engage in a discussion of the themes presented.
3.  Students will research the laws and forces that brought about the internment of Japanese American citizens.
4.  Students will write letters and/or journal entries as a Japanese American living in an Internment camp, describint their ordeal(s), feelings, hopes for the future, etc.
5.  Students will design postcards and/or posters that reflect this time period.
6. Post-test
7. Students will create/develop a 3 to 5 minute PowerPoint presentaton and incorporate a collage of images and music in that conveys their understanding of one or more of the themes from Snow Falling on Cedars.  Music and images must be relevant.

Snow Falling on Cedars is a film about life and death, love and betrayal, passion and pain, forgiveness and redemption. It is about the power of emotion to influence perception and memory. It is about justice and truth.

But that is not why you should see it; You should see it for the story. For this film is so finely crafted, and the story unfolds so naturally, that it is easy to appreciate for the simple compelling drama of the narrative. You care about the characters, you care about how the trial turns out, and you ache to know the truth.

The plot centers around a murder trial of a Japanese man charged in the death of a local fisherman, and on a white reporter covering the trial. It turns out the reporter had once been in love with a Japanese woman, now the accused man's wife. This romance was shattered as World War II broke out, and the young woman and her family were rounded up with other Japanese Americans, and interred in camps.

The story that unfolds is part "Casablanca", part "Amistad", part "To Kill a Mockingbird", yet wholly original and true to itself. It is at once a tender love story, a lesson in history, a murder mystery, and more.

The story of each of the main characters is told through flashbacks that reveal how each of them has suffered because of the war and how each has to overcome this suffering.  Many of the most compelling images of the film occur in these flashbacks. Like real lasting memories, they are moments of deep emotional significance, and include many images which you will carry in your own mind long after you have left the theater.

If you look for them you may also find some symbolic or allegorical images in the film (the boat's mast resembles a cross; the fish could also be seen as a Christian symbol of sacrifice), but these elements are not heavy handed or forced, they occur naturally as important elements of the story which is set in a small fishing village on the Northwestern coast of the US in the years surrounding World War II.

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1.Students will take a Pre-Test on their knowledge of the Japanese American internment during WWII.
2.  Students will view the movie, "Snow Falling on Cedars,"watching for plot development and characterization.  Following the movie there will be a discussion and identification of the themes, main characters and the plot.

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1.  Students will search the internet for references and information on Japanese American internment during WWII, looking for information and facts they can use to complete their assignments.
2.  Students will learn (if they don't already know) how to create a PowerPoint presentation.
3.  Students will review how to credit references and information found on the Internet and how to build a bibliography of resources used for their PowerPoint presentation. dewey.chs.chico.k12.ca.us 

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1.  Students will present to other class members packets of the letters, journal entries, postcards and posters they created (or build a on display on one of the bulletin boards).
2.  Students will present their PowerPoint presentations to the class.

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Assessment
 

1.  Evaluation Rubric for the PowerPoint presentation.
2.  Presentation of original journal entries, postcards, posters and/or letters.
3.  Students will judge each others' presentations for creativity, originality, and accuracy using a scale of 1-10 with 10 being best (equilivant to 100%).
4.  Students will take Post-Test and compare their scores with their Pre-Test.
5.  Students will fill out evaluation form for the activity judging it on various topics as pre-determined by CTAP course requirements.

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Web Resources & Supplementary Materials
Introductory Activity
1.  Pre-Test
2. Movie:  Snow Falling on Cedars
David Guterson:
Interview:www.bookpage.com/9601lbp/fiction/snowfallingoncedars.html
USA Today:www.usatoday.com/life/enter/books/leb083.html
People Magazine:
www.time.com/time/magazine/archive/1994/940926/94926.books.guterson.html
www.folger.edu/public/pfaulk/awards.html
www.randomhouse.com/catalogue
http://dcn.davis.ca.us/go/gizmo/cedars.html

Enabling Activity
Students research the Internet/www for information, images, music, etc., for their projects.
Japanese American Internment Camp Sources:
www.askasia.org
www.scu.edu
www.nsn.org
www.fatherryan.org
www.loucol.com
www.lib.utah.edu
www.thegateway.org
www.umass.edu
www.janet.org
www.channelone.com
Manazar:www.rr.gmcs.k12.nm.us
Camp Harmony: www.lib.washington.edu
www.sfsu.edu
japanese-american-internment-camp.profitdestiny.com
www.kent.webnet.edu
Laws:www.usdoj.gov
abacus.bates.edu

Text of Executive Order No. 9066:
www.library.arizona.edu/images/jpamer/execodr/html
www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/csearch.html

Culminating Activity
1.  Post-Test
2.  PowerPoint Presentations by student groups
3.  Displays of original journal entries, postcards, posters and/or letters
4.  Evaluation/Rubric

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Diane L. Johnson
e-mail address:  diane1024@hotmail.com

Last Revised: 6/04/01