Collective Activism
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Lesson Plan 1 of 3
Purpose:
This activity teaches students about the Japanese military sexual slavery system euphemistically known as “comfort women” during WWII. It allows students to look at the dehumanization behind one of the horrors of the Pacific theater of WWII. It also allows students to see the ways that the victims resisted dehumanization and reclaimed their humanity.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in the Pacific War portion of a unit on WWII
Grades: 9-10. High school students taking a modern World History course.
Objective: Students will understand how the Japanese military was able to dehumanize the women used in their sexual slavery system known as “comfort stations.” Students will understand methods of resistance available to the “comfort women” victims.
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Unit context:
This lesson is designed to go at the end of a mini unit on early WWII in Asia. It is highly suggested that the educator use the lessons developed by Facing History and Ourselves on the Nanjing Atrocities, specifically the lesson on the growth of Japanese Imperialism as well as the lessons on the Nanjing Atrocities themselves.
Background Information:
Background information may be found in this 4-page reading containing salient excerpts from 25 Years of Wednesdays: the story of the “comfort women” and the Wednesday Demonstrations by Mee-hyang Yoon and Koeun Lee. Excerpts were edited for clarity. Teachers may want to give the background reading document to their students. Graphic imagery is limited to the words ‘rape’ and ‘raped’ throughout the piece. More specific information that might be considered disturbing was deliberately excluded.
Procedure:
The materials in this lesson can be adapted to fit a single 55min class, spread over two days, or used in a single “block” class of 85-100 minutes.
Do Now: There are two options. If the lesson is going to be confined to a single 55min class period, or spread over two days, then the ‘Option 1’ “Do Now: When you think of the term “comfort woman” what comes to mind? What do you imagine her responsibilities might be?” should be used. The ‘Option 2’ Do Now using the visual thinking strategies should be used for either a second day of the lesson OR as the beginning of a 85-100 min class block. Student discussion of the statue images can be expected to take approximately 15 min.
Trigger warning: There is a trigger warning on this lesson. It is also important to discuss with students why this lesson is being taught when it is a difficult topic and mentions violence.
Short lecture: Timeline: Students need to be told/reminded of Japan’s victories in the Pacific which led to their having military control over most of East and Southeast Asia. Japanese War Tactics: Japanese attitudes towards their enemies are contrasted with the ‘comfort women’ system. The ‘comfort women’ system is introduced. “Comfort Women:” The “comfort women” system is elaborated on in more detail. Map of Japanese military’s “Comfort Stations”: Map of the ‘comfort stations’ within a map of the extent of the WWII-era Japanese empire. Imperialism Through Systematic Military Sexual Slavery: students see how even the condoms the soldiers were given contributed to the dehumanization and violence against the girls.
‘Herstory’ video: (Optional if limiting lesson to one 50-55 min class). Students will watch this 3:19 video and take notes on how each of the two women were brought into the ‘comfort’ system and what it was like for them at the very first (this video is NOT graphic).
Silent Conversations: Print out comfort women testimonies from http://www.e4sjf.org/survivors-testimonies--legacies.html. I prefer to have at least one from each country, and print out others that I think help complete the story. You may want to copy the text from each testimony into a blank doc in order to change border widths or spacing so that students have space to leave comments. You may also want to edit out the explanation of the “comfort system” in each testimony as it gets to be repetitive. If you copy the testimonies to a blank doc be sure to include a photo of the survivor to remind students that it was a real person.
Students should be in even groups of 3-5, depending on class size. Give each group as many testimonies as there are students. Explain to students that they will be having a ‘silent conversation’ with the papers. Each student has two minutes to read their testimony silently, and write down their thoughts/feelings/questions. At the end of two minutes you tell them to pass their paper to the right, and take their neighbor’s paper from the left. Repeat the reading/writing. Students should now be responding to what their neighbors wrote as well as to the original text. Continue until all students have read each of the testimonies their group has.
Share out: Ask students to share out any similarities they noticed. Any differences. Was there anything that stood out to them?
If you are only doing one lesson in a ~50 min format skip from here down to the last bullet point/slide entitled “Journal”
Comfort women deprivation slide: A reminder to students about the dehumanization that exists under extreme nationalism. Something that can be tied to family policies in Mussolini’s Italy.
Forms of Resistance: tell students about the small acts that “comfort women” were able to do in order to resist Japanese dehumanization (could be a good time to ask them what things they did during the pandemic to keep their sense of self)
Examples of Resistance: Partner work. Pass out the ‘Examples of Resistance’ sheet. One person reads the text in the top half, the other partner reads the bottom half. Have students summarize for their partner what the resistance activity was. Discuss: how were these forms of resistance to dehumanization?
After the war: Tell students what happened to the survivors once the war ended.
Resistance after: Let students know how survivors continue to resist Japanese government efforts to deny the fact that the “comfort woman” system existed, or minimize it as “old history”
Journal: This topic is “hard history” and it is important to give students time to process it. Ask them to name their emotions and write them down and then give them time to write down what else is going through their head. I give 5 min for this task.
Materials/Handouts:
Further work: This lesson could be followed by a lesson:
On the Wednesday Demonstrations (see lesson 2, here: http://www.e4sjf.org/collective-activism.html) or
looking at contemporary issues of human trafficking (here: http://www.e4sjf.org/a-global-plague.html) or
Examining Japan’s continuing refusal to admit that the comfort women system existed and apologize for it (coming soon to Education for Social Justice Foundation). That goes on to another part of WWII.
Standards:
2017 History-Social Science Framework:
“Comfort Women” is a euphemism that describes women who were forced into sexual service by the Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during the war. Comfort Women can be taught as an example of institutionalized sexual slavery; estimates on the total number of Comfort Women vary, but most argue that hundreds of thousands of women were forced into these situations during Japanese occupation. On December 28, 2015, the governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea entered into an agreement regarding the issues of Comfort Women
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
10.8 1. Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s, including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China, and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939. 6. Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.
This activity teaches students about the Japanese military sexual slavery system euphemistically known as “comfort women” during WWII. It allows students to look at the dehumanization behind one of the horrors of the Pacific theater of WWII. It also allows students to see the ways that the victims resisted dehumanization and reclaimed their humanity.
This lesson is recommended as an activity to be included in the Pacific War portion of a unit on WWII
Grades: 9-10. High school students taking a modern World History course.
Objective: Students will understand how the Japanese military was able to dehumanize the women used in their sexual slavery system known as “comfort stations.” Students will understand methods of resistance available to the “comfort women” victims.
Standards: See end of document
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Unit context:
This lesson is designed to go at the end of a mini unit on early WWII in Asia. It is highly suggested that the educator use the lessons developed by Facing History and Ourselves on the Nanjing Atrocities, specifically the lesson on the growth of Japanese Imperialism as well as the lessons on the Nanjing Atrocities themselves.
Background Information:
Background information may be found in this 4-page reading containing salient excerpts from 25 Years of Wednesdays: the story of the “comfort women” and the Wednesday Demonstrations by Mee-hyang Yoon and Koeun Lee. Excerpts were edited for clarity. Teachers may want to give the background reading document to their students. Graphic imagery is limited to the words ‘rape’ and ‘raped’ throughout the piece. More specific information that might be considered disturbing was deliberately excluded.
Procedure:
The materials in this lesson can be adapted to fit a single 55min class, spread over two days, or used in a single “block” class of 85-100 minutes.
Do Now: There are two options. If the lesson is going to be confined to a single 55min class period, or spread over two days, then the ‘Option 1’ “Do Now: When you think of the term “comfort woman” what comes to mind? What do you imagine her responsibilities might be?” should be used. The ‘Option 2’ Do Now using the visual thinking strategies should be used for either a second day of the lesson OR as the beginning of a 85-100 min class block. Student discussion of the statue images can be expected to take approximately 15 min.
Trigger warning: There is a trigger warning on this lesson. It is also important to discuss with students why this lesson is being taught when it is a difficult topic and mentions violence.
Short lecture: Timeline: Students need to be told/reminded of Japan’s victories in the Pacific which led to their having military control over most of East and Southeast Asia. Japanese War Tactics: Japanese attitudes towards their enemies are contrasted with the ‘comfort women’ system. The ‘comfort women’ system is introduced. “Comfort Women:” The “comfort women” system is elaborated on in more detail. Map of Japanese military’s “Comfort Stations”: Map of the ‘comfort stations’ within a map of the extent of the WWII-era Japanese empire. Imperialism Through Systematic Military Sexual Slavery: students see how even the condoms the soldiers were given contributed to the dehumanization and violence against the girls.
‘Herstory’ video: (Optional if limiting lesson to one 50-55 min class). Students will watch this 3:19 video and take notes on how each of the two women were brought into the ‘comfort’ system and what it was like for them at the very first (this video is NOT graphic).
Silent Conversations: Print out comfort women testimonies from http://www.e4sjf.org/survivors-testimonies--legacies.html. I prefer to have at least one from each country, and print out others that I think help complete the story. You may want to copy the text from each testimony into a blank doc in order to change border widths or spacing so that students have space to leave comments. You may also want to edit out the explanation of the “comfort system” in each testimony as it gets to be repetitive. If you copy the testimonies to a blank doc be sure to include a photo of the survivor to remind students that it was a real person.
Students should be in even groups of 3-5, depending on class size. Give each group as many testimonies as there are students. Explain to students that they will be having a ‘silent conversation’ with the papers. Each student has two minutes to read their testimony silently, and write down their thoughts/feelings/questions. At the end of two minutes you tell them to pass their paper to the right, and take their neighbor’s paper from the left. Repeat the reading/writing. Students should now be responding to what their neighbors wrote as well as to the original text. Continue until all students have read each of the testimonies their group has.
Share out: Ask students to share out any similarities they noticed. Any differences. Was there anything that stood out to them?
If you are only doing one lesson in a ~50 min format skip from here down to the last bullet point/slide entitled “Journal”
Comfort women deprivation slide: A reminder to students about the dehumanization that exists under extreme nationalism. Something that can be tied to family policies in Mussolini’s Italy.
Forms of Resistance: tell students about the small acts that “comfort women” were able to do in order to resist Japanese dehumanization (could be a good time to ask them what things they did during the pandemic to keep their sense of self)
Examples of Resistance: Partner work. Pass out the ‘Examples of Resistance’ sheet. One person reads the text in the top half, the other partner reads the bottom half. Have students summarize for their partner what the resistance activity was. Discuss: how were these forms of resistance to dehumanization?
After the war: Tell students what happened to the survivors once the war ended.
Resistance after: Let students know how survivors continue to resist Japanese government efforts to deny the fact that the “comfort woman” system existed, or minimize it as “old history”
Journal: This topic is “hard history” and it is important to give students time to process it. Ask them to name their emotions and write them down and then give them time to write down what else is going through their head. I give 5 min for this task.
Materials/Handouts:
- Background information on “Comfort Women” excerpted from 25 Years of Wednesdays: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1heFZ_FDPkW-0A-FtvLDdeLz_wGD1YiURHVhA-jkBdoI/edit?usp=sharing
- Google Slide deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12gnh5XoiOZ62DKdutJcOixhuG2u0b4RlzRrrBWwCEnc/edit?usp=sharing
- The testimonies of surviving “Comfort Women” found at Education for Social Justice Foundation’s website: http://www.e4sjf.org/survivors-testimonies--legacies.html . It is advisable to choose at least one testimony from every country listed so that students may see the range of women victimized. I personally find it important for my students to see that a Japanese girl and a Dutch colonizer were also victims.
- Examples of resistance: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1toTEUYsWhAMC_96p2p0kpQun4w0FBcxLy6JRhsUn_7Y/edit?usp=sharing
Further work: This lesson could be followed by a lesson:
On the Wednesday Demonstrations (see lesson 2, here: http://www.e4sjf.org/collective-activism.html) or
looking at contemporary issues of human trafficking (here: http://www.e4sjf.org/a-global-plague.html) or
Examining Japan’s continuing refusal to admit that the comfort women system existed and apologize for it (coming soon to Education for Social Justice Foundation). That goes on to another part of WWII.
Standards:
2017 History-Social Science Framework:
“Comfort Women” is a euphemism that describes women who were forced into sexual service by the Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during the war. Comfort Women can be taught as an example of institutionalized sexual slavery; estimates on the total number of Comfort Women vary, but most argue that hundreds of thousands of women were forced into these situations during Japanese occupation. On December 28, 2015, the governments of Japan and the Republic of Korea entered into an agreement regarding the issues of Comfort Women
California History-Social Science Content Standards:
10.8 1. Compare the German, Italian, and Japanese drives for empire in the 1930s, including the 1937 Rape of Nanking, other atrocities in China, and the Stalin-Hitler Pact of 1939. 6. Discuss the human costs of the war, with particular attention to the civilian and military losses in Russia, Germany, Britain, the United States, China, and Japan.
Lesson Plan 2 of 3
Purpose: This activity teaches students about the unresolved situation and continued activism that “comfort women” and their allies continue to this day. It allows students to process the heavy topic of military sexual violence and slavery and gives them the opportunity, in some small way, participate in activism. This is recommended as a culminating activity for teaching “comfort women.”
Objective: Students will “join” a Wednesday Demonstration by creating a journal entry, short speech, skit, dance, or song directed to former “comfort women,” to the larger audience of the Wednesday Demonstration, or to the Japanese government. They will perform their chosen medium to the whole class.
California History-Social Science Content Standard: 10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II. (Part of addressing that standard in the New HSS Curriculum Framework includes, “‘Comfort women’ is a euphemism that describes women who were forced into sexual service by the Japanese Army…”)
Suggested Time: 1-3 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Procedure:
Materials/Handouts:
Objective: Students will “join” a Wednesday Demonstration by creating a journal entry, short speech, skit, dance, or song directed to former “comfort women,” to the larger audience of the Wednesday Demonstration, or to the Japanese government. They will perform their chosen medium to the whole class.
California History-Social Science Content Standard: 10.8 Students analyze the causes and consequences of World War II. (Part of addressing that standard in the New HSS Curriculum Framework includes, “‘Comfort women’ is a euphemism that describes women who were forced into sexual service by the Japanese Army…”)
Suggested Time: 1-3 class days (at least one hour of class time)
Procedure:
- Teachers should spend 5-10 minutes teaching students about the history and purpose of the weekly Wednesday Demonstrations. These protest have been held in Seoul, South Korea every Wednesday across from the Japanese Embassy since January 8, 1992 (putting their numbers into the thousands and making it the longest running, continuous protest in the world). It is strongly suggested that the teachers find and show footage from a real Wednesday Demonstration. There are videos on YouTube that show the demonstrations, including a short clip from KBS News called “Comfort Women Dispute.”
- Once students are familiar with the concept of a rally, they will work individually to create their own personal response as if they were at Wednesday Rally. Students have a variety of options including (but not limited to):
- writing a journal entry reflecting on what they have learned and what they feel about “comfort women” history
- writing a short speech addressed directly to former “comfort women.”
- writing a short speech addressed to the audience at a Wednesday Demonstration.
- writing a short speech addressed to the Japanese government.
- creating a skit about “comfort women” history and/or activism.
- creating a dance about “comfort women” history and/or activism (but student should still include a 1-2 paragraph explanation of their dance and its connection to “comfort women.”)
- writing a song about “comfort women” history and/or activism.
- Students should turn in a written copy of their presentation. They should also prepare and rehearse their chosen medium so they will be ready to perform it in front of the class.
- The class stages its own Wednesday Demonstration and students perform their piece.
Materials/Handouts:
- YouTube clip from KBS News called “Comfort Women Dispute.”
- 25 Years of Wednesdays by Mee-Hyang Yoon for further research.
- Sample rubric for assignment (on next page)
Lesson Plan 3 of 3
Purpose: To provide a background of atrocities committed and why war crimes went unpunished, allowing students to learn and analyze common themes, the impact of war from the accounts of victims, and see individual efforts towards finding justice.
Objective: Students will examine first-hand accounts (letters) of victims of WWII in order to analyze how common literary/historical themes (e.g. “war”, “good vs. evil” etc.) apply to lived experiences.
CA H-SS Framework Standard: 11.7 America’s Participation in WWII - How was the war mobilized and fought differently in the Atlantic versus the Pacific? How did America win the war in the Pacific? How did World War II serve to advance movements for equality at home and abroad?
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days
Procedure:
Materials:
[1] 10000 Cries for Justice began with the work of Tong Zeng, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Tong Zeng sought compensation from the Japanese government for wartime victims, resulting in an outpouring of letters from victims and victim’s family members.
Objective: Students will examine first-hand accounts (letters) of victims of WWII in order to analyze how common literary/historical themes (e.g. “war”, “good vs. evil” etc.) apply to lived experiences.
CA H-SS Framework Standard: 11.7 America’s Participation in WWII - How was the war mobilized and fought differently in the Atlantic versus the Pacific? How did America win the war in the Pacific? How did World War II serve to advance movements for equality at home and abroad?
Suggested Time: 1-2 class days
Procedure:
- Teachers should introduce students to common themes (e.g. good versus evil, war and peace, survival etc.).
- Teachers introduce students to WWII in Asia by providing the short read or create a presentation. The reading provides background information and four major offenses committed during WWII in Asia.
- “Comfort Women”
- The Nanjing Massacre
- Unit 731
- Slave Labor
- Introduce students to 10000 Cries For Justice (CFJ).
- Provide students with translated letters. Students will use the sequence number to find the original letter at www.10000cfj.org
Materials:
- Japanese Atrocities in Asia by New Jersey Hong Kong Network Reading
- Copy of translated letters
- www.10000cfj.org[1]
[1] 10000 Cries for Justice began with the work of Tong Zeng, a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize. Tong Zeng sought compensation from the Japanese government for wartime victims, resulting in an outpouring of letters from victims and victim’s family members.
Copyright Ⓒ 2018 by Education for Social Justice Foundation. All rights reserved.
For other lesson plans, primary source documents, and additional content, visit e4sjf.org
Copyright Ⓒ 2018 Education for Social Justice Foundation. All rights reserved.
