Wanto Co. Grocery Store owned by the Matsuda Family with "I Am An American" Sign hanging in Window, installed on December 8, 1941 a day after Japanese Pilots bombed Pearl Harbor. This sign was put up by Tatsuro Masuda, a Japanese American store owner in Oakland, California, to show his loyalty to the United States at a time when Japanese Americans faced suspicion and discrimination. Photo by: Lang, Dorothea, photographer, taken in March 1942. Courtesy of Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/cph.3a24566/
By
Library of Congress
Recommended For
Upper Elementary School - Middle School
Words
155
Lexile
0L
Published
2026-05-01
About this Item
Title
Oakland, Calif., Mar. 1942. A large sign reading "I am an American" placed in the window of a store, at [401 - 403 Eighth] and Franklin streets, on December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor. The store was closed following orders to persons of Japanese descent to evacuate from certain West Coast areas. The owner, a University of California graduate, will be housed with hundreds of evacuees in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration of the war
Summary
Photograph shows the Wanto Co. store located at 401 - 403 Eighth and Franklin Streets in Oakland, California. The business was owned by the Matsuda family. Tatsuro Matsuda, a University of California graduate, commissioned and installed the "I am an American" sign. (Source: researcher R. Yee, Oakland Museum of California, 2017) Lange took this photograph while working for the War Relocation Authority, and the OWI acquired a copy for its own files.
Turn and Talk
Directions: Turn and talk with a partner to summarize what you learned from the article and photo set in the last lesson. Then, connect your ideas to this unit’s themes of visibility and exclusion. Use the guiding questions to support your discussion.
Who appeared in the photos of Americans on the “home front”?
Who was absent from those photos, and why?
What do these photos suggest about the American “home front” during the war?
Part A: What Makes an American?
Collaborative Idea Board
Directions: Think about the question: What makes an American? Share your ideas as we record them on a Collaborative Idea Board. As we build our ideas together, use the guiding questions to help you think more deeply and contribute to the discussion.
Do you have to be from America to be an American? Why or why not?
Are there values and beliefs that define Americans? Do you have to share those beliefs to be an American?
Can someone decide to stop being an American? How? Can others decide that someone is no longer an American?
Check for Understanding
As you participate in the discussion, make sure you:
Use information from what you’ve learned about the word American to support your ideas.
Build on your own ideas or your classmates’ ideas by explaining your thinking more clearly.
Use examples (or non-examples) to help explain your thinking.
Go beyond “yes/no” responses to consider nuance and ambiguity in their answers.
Part B: Analyze Media
Directions: First, look at the two images from Spark Resource Set #2: the “I Am an American” sign (Oakland, CA, 1942) and the Uncle Sam recruitment poster (1940). As you view them, listen for important historical context that will help you understand each image.
Next, you will work in groups. Half of you will focus on the “I Am an American” image, and the other half will focus on the recruitment poster. With your group or partner, discuss the questions that follow:
Why was the image created?
Who was the intended audience of this image?
How does this image define “Americanness”?
What message about being “American” is shown in each image, and how are those messages similar or different?
Come back together as a class and share your group’s ideas. As you listen and compare responses, add any new or helpful information to your notes.
Reflection
Reflect on your understanding of the selected images using the Reflection routine.
How confident are you in your ability to interpret these two images produced during World War II?
Quick Write
Directions: Work in small groups to discuss the following questions. Then, write two to three sentences to respond, using details from your discussion.
What messages do these images send?
How might fear shape public perception of these images?
