Step 1
You are to have read They Called Us Enemy by the end of Week 4, February 26th and participate in the
Discussion Forum on the book this week.
Step 2
View/attend the following content by the end of Week 6, March 12th.
Read this website and view the government sponsored video entitled “Japanese Relocation”:
http://vandvreader.org/japanese-relocation-office-of-war-information-bureau-of-motion-pictures-1942/
View two short PBS videos on photographer Dorothea Lange in “Picturing Japanese American Internment:
Dorothea Lange”: https://ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/lang14.soc.ushist.intern/picturing-japaneseamerican-internment-dorothea-lange/
View the Kupferberg Holocaust Center at Queensborough exhibition: “The Concentration Camps: Inside the
Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide”: http://khc.qcc.cuny.edu/blog/exhibit/concentration-camps/
Attend the Common Read virtual panel “Graphic Internment.” It will be recorded if you are unable to attend in
person, but I highly recommend you make it live!
Wednesday March 10th, 12pm
Join two faculty members from Queensborough Community College’s English Department for a conversation
about the internment of Japanese-Americans in the United States during WWII. John Yi, Lecturer, will discuss
QCC’s 2020-21 Common Read text, George Takei’s graphic novel, They Called Us Enemy, while Dr. Aliza Atik,
Associate Professor, will review Mine Okubo’s Prisoner 13660. This lecture is part of the 2020-21 Harriet and
Kenneth Kupferberg Holocaust Center (KHC) and National Endowment for the Humanities Colloquium entitled,
“Internment & Resistance: Confronting Mass Detention and Dehumanization and both books are related to the
KHC’s original exhibition, “The Concentration Camps: Inside the Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide.”
This event is co-sponsored by Queensborough Community College’s Art & Design Department and the Center
for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL).
Step 3
The written component of the assignment is due Week 7, March 14th at 11:59pm.
You are in an art history course in which the analysis of visual production across time and cultures in the focus
of our study. At the same time, one of the General Education Outcomes of student learning at Queensborough
is to “Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed
decisions.” Use the information you learned from the four elements in Step 2 and your reading of They Called
Us Enemy to answer the following questions. There is no minimum or maximum that you should write, just
thoughtful consideration of the materials presented to you.
Upload your answers here in Blackboard as a Word or pdf document.
How do George Takei’s descriptions of his experience in a Japanese Internment camp as a child in They
Called Us Enemy compare to the U.S. government’s description presented in the “Japanese Relocation”
video?
How might what you learned about the internment of Americans after reading They Called Us Enemy relate to
and/or connect to things that you learned about the Nazi Concentration Camps?
Describe how the visual experiences of reading They Called Us Enemy, viewing the U.S. government video on
the Japanese Relocation program, the PBS video on Dorothea Lange’s photographs of interned Japanese
Americans, and visiting the virtual KHC Holocaust Center exhibition: “The Concentration Camps: Inside the
Nazi System of Incarceration and Genocide” informed your understanding of the internment of Americans and
the Holocaust.
Imagine you are having a conversation with a few of your friends after attending the “Graphic Internment”
panel. Describe what you learned and something that surprised you that you think is significant to share with
them