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Lesson 3: “In Response to Executive Order 9066”

California CCSS: Focus Standards

Read Dwight Okita’s poem “In Response to Executive Order 9066” and compare its portrayal of Japanese American incarceration with Dorothea Lange’s photos from the period.
Interpret how Okita’s poem and Lange’s photographs bear witness to Japanese American incarceration by using comparative language (both, similarly, unlike), academic interpretation verbs (reveals, highlights, emphasizes), and source-transition language (In the poem . . . , In the image . . .) to connect imagery and visual details to the historic facts and impacts of EO 9066.
Consider the different meanings and parts of speech that the word witness can have, choosing the most relevant meanings to discuss Japanese American incarceration.