Second World War: Resurgence and Response

Second World War Resurgence and Response
(How did the Second World War force us to remake our national identities again?)

QCC objectives for the 5th and 9th grades

Ideas
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(5.15) Analyzes and explains major causes, events and personalities of World War II
- resurgence of nationalism, militarism, and imperialism
- major powers and their leaders
- Pearl Harbor
- the internment of Japanese Americans
- the Holocaust, and
- VE and VJ Day. (10)

Nationalism resurged from the economic crisis around the world. All countries became more defensive and their teaching of national history reflected growing ethnocentrism and disdain for foreigners. Cite examples of national mythmaking in Germany and Japan.

For the internment of Japanese-Americans,
Farewell to Manzanar, by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D.Houston (Bantam Doubleday: 1973) tells the story of Japanese-American internment from an adolescent Japanese-American girl's perspective (203 pages).

Upper Secondary school classes trace and analyze the causes of the war (9-12.22) and the phenomenon of genocide in the 20th century (Armenian, Nazi holocaust, and ethnic cleansing (Balkan, African, and Asian).

Part One of the Total War (volume 2) episode of The Great War video series would be appropriate background on the genocide of Armenians (47:40--54:32). Turkish response to this is very defensive, however. They claim that Russia was supporting the Armenians in the war against Turkey. Does this excuse killing all of the civilian population?!

Comparisons of the resurgence of nationalism, militarism, imperialism in the U.S. and Japan can be made by comparing the oral histories in these two books:
Japan At War: An Oral History, by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook (The New Press: 1992)
"The Good War": An Oral History of World War II, by Studs Terkel
(The New Press: 1984)