"Didn't Japanese Internment Camps Happen in Japan, Not in America?" An Inquiry Project Challenging Hidden Stories in American History

ABSTRACT

Using the frameworks of literary understanding and difficult knowledge, this study examines sixth graders' responses to mixed-genre books about Japanese incarceration camps. Anti-Asian hate crimes can be documented back to the 1800s but have been recently exacerbated and increased due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Kelly Yang, the Chinese American author of Front Desk, recently tweeted about two public incidents of racism related to the pandemic. On Apr 14, 2020, Yang noted that a couple of teenagers called her "Chinese virus" multiple times during her free online writing class through Instagram Live.