Two National History Day projects draw from “Conscience”

quotations on displayOne of the benefits of putting Resisters.com online is making the story of the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee and the principled resistance to Japanese American incarceration readily available to students — particularly for National History Day projects. This year our site provided the raw material for two sets of students who selected the story of the Nisei draft resisters and other dissidents to address this year’s topic, “Conflict and Compromise in History.”

students with projectIn Bakersfield, Lucy Sperber and her teammates  Krina and Sricharan interviewed me over Skype (and over the phone after their wi-fi faltered) for their project, “A Different Kind of Patriot: the Japanese American Draft Resisters.” We had a lively conversation, two quotes from which appear above and in the display below.

tri-fold display

Last weekend the Bakersfield team answered questions about their project at the Kern County History Day competition, and did so well they are advancing to the State competition in May.

winning students with teachers

In Sacramento,  Ainsley Fong and her teammates Alyssa Story, Asher Ballard,  and Harry Corless drew from this website and other materials to create their own website, “The Unseen Battle of World War II: The No-Nos Refuse to Compromise.”  They were selected as one of three Champions in the Junior (6-8th grade) Group Website division for Sacramento County History Day and they’re advancing to the State competition as well. They also won one of the Mary Tsukamoto awards for their submittal.

See their work online. and their pages on the loyalty questionnaire, the no-nos segregated to Tule Lake and this remarkable page on the Heart Mountain Fair Play Committee.

Congratulations to the two teams, best of luck at State, and thanks to all the students interested in American history and this history of American dissent in particular.

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