TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE
“Thank you for remembering us.”
--Survivor Yong-Soo “Grandma” Lee (b.Korea, 1928)
“The Guide reveals the huge amount of work that went into its creation: finding the primary sources; creating the timelines; and creating the prompts to guide students deeper into the sources and the events they reveal. It's all very well done.”
—Uldis Kruze, Professor of History, University of San Francisco
“An innovative approach to inform the next generation of the tragedies that happened to real people many years before they were born. The author and contributors bring life to these sad memories while also examining this tragic history from historical bird’s eye view and looking towards the future.”
—Theresa Der-Lan Yeh, Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and research fellow of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, National Taiwan University
“Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide, Third Edition
Author: Sung Sohn
Contributors: Christina Tang, Faye Kwan, Erin Hanlon, Carrie Seidler, Eric Mar, Steven Whyte & Ellen Wilson
ISBN: 978-1-950111-09-1
The history of “comfort women” is a long legacy of fighting for justice that resulted in a transnational movement for women’s human rights and empowerment. “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide illuminates both the history of the Japanese military sex slavery system and the global effort to bring justice to the victims of state-sanctioned war crimes. Composed of a historical overview, primary and secondary source documents from the 1930s to the present, and relevant lesson plans and activity sheets, the teacher edition is a comprehensive guide for educators seeking to teach about this sidelined atrocity. Copies of the first edition were distributed to eighteen high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District in 2018.
The third edition of “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide is comprised of five main parts:
1) the history of remembering and honoring “comfort women” through education and collective activism;
2) reflections from a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Eric Mar, who proposed a resolution to install a memorial for “comfort women,” and from sculptor Steven Whyte, who designed the Women’s Column of Strength, co-written by gallery director, Ellen Wilson;
3) primary source documents with background information;
4) survivors’ testimonies from Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and the Netherlands;
5) lesson plans, worksheets, and activity sheets.
Lesson plans were developed by Christina Tang, Faye Kwan, Erin Hanlon, and Carrie Seidler, active Bay Area history teachers who are committed to teaching the history of marginalized populations. Parents and educators developed activity sheets to reinforce and integrate learning. These supplemental materials include a back-to-back sheet of quick facts on military sex slaves and a map that can be used as a paper fortune teller origami activity and puzzles. Together with dedicated teachers, parents, and advocates, Education for Social Justice Foundation (ESJF) distributed “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide in SFUSD in spring 2018.
--Survivor Yong-Soo “Grandma” Lee (b.Korea, 1928)
“The Guide reveals the huge amount of work that went into its creation: finding the primary sources; creating the timelines; and creating the prompts to guide students deeper into the sources and the events they reveal. It's all very well done.”
—Uldis Kruze, Professor of History, University of San Francisco
“An innovative approach to inform the next generation of the tragedies that happened to real people many years before they were born. The author and contributors bring life to these sad memories while also examining this tragic history from historical bird’s eye view and looking towards the future.”
—Theresa Der-Lan Yeh, Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures, and research fellow of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, National Taiwan University
“Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide, Third Edition
Author: Sung Sohn
Contributors: Christina Tang, Faye Kwan, Erin Hanlon, Carrie Seidler, Eric Mar, Steven Whyte & Ellen Wilson
ISBN: 978-1-950111-09-1
The history of “comfort women” is a long legacy of fighting for justice that resulted in a transnational movement for women’s human rights and empowerment. “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide illuminates both the history of the Japanese military sex slavery system and the global effort to bring justice to the victims of state-sanctioned war crimes. Composed of a historical overview, primary and secondary source documents from the 1930s to the present, and relevant lesson plans and activity sheets, the teacher edition is a comprehensive guide for educators seeking to teach about this sidelined atrocity. Copies of the first edition were distributed to eighteen high schools in the San Francisco Unified School District in 2018.
The third edition of “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide is comprised of five main parts:
1) the history of remembering and honoring “comfort women” through education and collective activism;
2) reflections from a former member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors Eric Mar, who proposed a resolution to install a memorial for “comfort women,” and from sculptor Steven Whyte, who designed the Women’s Column of Strength, co-written by gallery director, Ellen Wilson;
3) primary source documents with background information;
4) survivors’ testimonies from Korea, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, Japan, and the Netherlands;
5) lesson plans, worksheets, and activity sheets.
Lesson plans were developed by Christina Tang, Faye Kwan, Erin Hanlon, and Carrie Seidler, active Bay Area history teachers who are committed to teaching the history of marginalized populations. Parents and educators developed activity sheets to reinforce and integrate learning. These supplemental materials include a back-to-back sheet of quick facts on military sex slaves and a map that can be used as a paper fortune teller origami activity and puzzles. Together with dedicated teachers, parents, and advocates, Education for Social Justice Foundation (ESJF) distributed “Comfort Women” History and Issues: Teacher Resource Guide in SFUSD in spring 2018.