War Relocation Authority Incarceree Farm Labor Teacher Education Project

– Free Online Workshop for 4th Grade to 12th Grade Humanities, History, and Social Studies Teachers –

During World War II, the federal government forcibly removed people of Japanese ancestry on the West Coast and imprisoned them in American concentration camps. A little-known part of their story is that the War Relocation Authority (WRA) expected them to grow food to feed themselves, contribute to the war effort, and make barren lands flourish under the most difficult of circumstances. How did the incarcerees grapple with these demands?

Mark your calendar for our next dynamic workshop – Farm Labor While Confined. Our case studies will take us from concentration camp farms to sugar beet fields to potato harvests across five states. We will focus on six incarceration sites: Tule Lake (CA), Minidoka (ID), Gila River (AZ), Poston (AZ), Amache (CO), and Heart Mountain (WY). Part of our discussion will address the Temporary Farm Leave Program and the Farm Labor Camps in which incarcerees worked on private farms and large agricultural tracts that were facing labor shortages due to the war.

Join your colleagues for open-ended inquiry into this important historic moment when the personal experience of imprisoned people of Japanese ancestry intersects with 1940s US labor history. What is the legacy of their agricultural labor on the Western American landscape?

Join your colleagues for open-ended inquiry into Japanese American incarcerees’ farm labor during World War II

These two-day, 3-1/2 hour online or 6 hour in-person interactive workshops, (length depends on regional location), explores our topic through examination of primary source documents, case studies, images, and secondary sources in the Farm Labor While Confined curriculum. Sessions will be broken up with 15-minute breaks.

The curriculum will focus the following:
– Farming in the War Relocation Centers
– Temporary Farm Labor
– Department of Agriculture Farm Labor Camps

Separate curriculum is designed elementary and for secondary students.

Limited Space! Apply Now

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