Join us for a free one-day workshop for educators at the Japanese American National Museum, hosted by the USC U.S.-China Institute and the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. This workshop will include a guided tour of the beloved exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community, slated to close permanently in January 2025. Following the tour, learn strategies for engaging students in the primary source artifacts, images, and documents found in JANM’s vast collection and discover classroom-ready resources to support teaching and learning about the Japanese American experience.
Japan’s Economic Rise and America’s Wartime Fears (Saturday, Dec. 4, 2021)
The USC U.S. - China Institute, Japan Society New York, and National Consortium for Teaching about Asia (NCTA) are offering a complimentary one-day workshop for K-12 educators on Japan’s rise in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as the internment of Japanese Americans.
Overview:
Left: View down Ginza Street in Tokyo (1930s) from Mary Evans Prints | Right: Japanese-Americans incarcerated at Santa Anita from Library of Congress
Japan’s late 19th and early 20th century rise is among the most remarkable stories of modern world history. Educators are invited to join our workshop to look at the factors that drove Japan's rise and its impact. The workshop will include presentations and discussion with Japan specialists and brainstorming on how the ideas examined might be brought to life in K-12 classrooms.
We'll explore the following questions:
- Why did Japan expand its empire and choose to fight the United States?
- Why did the American government fear Japanese Americans and Japanese residents of the United States?
- On what grounds did it remove and detain more than 120,000 people without any charge?
- What was life like in the camps?
- How can we incorporate the story of this mass incarceration into lessons on history, on identity and on discrimination?
Presentations and speakers include:
Making Japan Modern
Mark Metzler, University of Washington
Prof. Metzler teaches Japanese and global history. This talk is based on his popular “Origins of Modern Japan” course. Prof. Metzler’s research focuses on Japanese economic history and the links between global conditions and Japanese actions. His books include Central Banks and Gold: How Tokyo, London, and New York Shaped the Modern World, Capital as Will and Imagination: Schumpeter's Guide to the Postwar Japanese Miracle and Lever of Empire: The International Gold Standard and the Crisis of Liberalism in Prewar Japan.
War, Race, and the Constitution
Susan Kamei, University of Southern California
Prof. Kamei is the granddaughter of Japanese immigrants. They, her parents and other family members were held in California and Wyoming. She was a member of the legal team who succeeded in getting the U.S. Congress to provide redress for those who were incarcerated. She is the author of the just published When Can We Go Back to America? The book details the rounding up of those of Japanese ancestry, the experience of the camps, the valiant military service of some, the struggle to regain lives when released from the camps, and the campaign to win redress.
There is another free workshop on October 23, 9-12pm, that focuses on U.S.-Japan Relations and Japan Today. Teachers are encouraged to sign up and attend both workshops, but are also welcome to just attend one.
This workshop is sponsored by:
with financial support from an anonymous donor and the Freeman Foundation.
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Please join us for the Grad Mixer! Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, Enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow students across USC Annenberg. Graduate students from any field are welcome to join, so it is a great opportunity to meet fellow students with IR/foreign policy-related research topics and interests.
RSVP link: https://forms.gle/1zer188RE9dCS6Ho6
Events
Wednesday, November 20, 2024 - 3:00pm
Hosted by USC Annenberg Office of International Affairs, enjoy food, drink and conversation with fellow international students.
Thursday, November 7, 2024 - 4:00pm
Join us for an in-person conversation on Thursday, November 7th at 4pm with author David M. Lampton as he discusses his new book, Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War. The book examines the history of U.S.-China relations across eight U.S. presidential administrations.