Dorothea Lange's photographs of Japanese-American internment in 1942. (Click here for a New York Times article on the discovery of Lange's photographs in the National Archives.
1. How does the office of war information film utilize the themes, ideas, images, and iconography of America's western expansion to tell the story of Japanese internment?
2. How does the text by Ansel Adams adress the following questions -- was internment of the Japanese necessary? Was it just, and did it live up to the ideals represented by the constitution of the United States?
3. How does the Adams text use images and words by administration officials to explain internment?
4. What are the rationales offered by the Supreme Court for the exclusion act and the internment of the Japanese occupants of Military area number 1 in the Hirabayashi case? Do you agree with the courts assessment that internment did not constitute a denial of the 5th amendment right to due process? What do you make of the concurring opinion written by Justice Murphy? What does he have to say about assimilation, racial difference, and the idea of liberty afforded to American citizens by the constitution? Does Murphy's concurrence read like a dissent, and if so how does he reconcile his reasoning with the majority opinion?
5. In the Korematsu ruling Chief Justice Black denies that relocation occurred because of racial prejudice, but rather because of issues of national security. How does Black's argument compare with the dissent offered by Justice Murphy? What argument against relocation and internment is advanced by Murphy, and what are the points of disagreement with Black?
November 29: Latino Immigration and The Zoot Suit Riots
Elizabeth Escobedo, The Pachuca Panic: Sexual and Cultural Battlegrounds in World War II Los Angeles, in The Western Historical Quarterly, Vol. 38, No.2, (Summer 2007) (ctools/coursepack).
Click on the image to the right of the text, “open Zoot Suit Culture.” There are two menus, “Music and Dance” and “Fashion.” Browse through these links to images with commentary by scholars and oral histories. Make sure you at least listen to “Pachuco Hop,” “Downtown L.A.,” and “Pachuco Attitude” (Music and Dance), as well as "The Zoot Suit” and “Wearing the Zoot Suit” (Fashion).
Los Angeles Times (University login needed: If newspaper links are not working properly, click on "Open in PDF Reader" located to the right of the article title on the following linked pages)
Luisa Moreno, Caravans of Sorrow: Noncitizen Americans of the Southwest (1940). Also available here.
Study Questions
1. From an Anglo-American perspective what did the Pachuca persona and style represent? What did this style represent from a Mexican and Mexican American perspective?
2. How did the Pachuca/o challenge ideas about American identity during World War II?
3. How was the controversy over Pachuca style ad persona linked to the changing public role of women during the second World War?
4. According to Escobedo how was the theory of ethnicty and Americanization advanced by Gunnar Myrdal as the solution to American race problem? How did the Pachuca contradict this idea about the evolution and emergence of an American identity among immigrant populations?
5. What do you make of the different images captured by the FSA's Bracero program and the images depicting the Zoot suiters and Pachuca/o culture at the PBS website?
6. What types of tensions did the Bracero program cause? [This conversation will be revisited and added to in the next class]
7. What history does Moreno want to make sure is taken into account when policymakers consider immigration issues? How did El Congreso del Pueblo de Habla Española (The Spanish-Speaking Peoples Congress) try to bring Spanish speakers together and what types of obstacles would a Pan-Latino organization face? (Keep this last question in mind when reading next week as well).
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