Lesson 11: Seen and Unseen, Part 6

Have students take out Seen and Unseen with homework annotations from Lesson 11. Students previewed this lesson’s passage and wrote down questions to guide their reading and analysis.

Think-Pair-Share

Say These Directions: Use the Think-Pair-Share routine to reflect and discuss the following questions related to your Lesson 11 homework assignment using the perspective markers and evidence stems on the board:

• Ask: Why might someone feel it is important to record everything they see?

  • A person might believe they are witnessing something important that others should be aware of. They may feel that they are watching “history in real time.” Or they may see things happening that they believe are unjust and want to document them so justice can be served in the future. In each of those cases, it would be natural to want to capture as much detail as possible.

• Ask: What responsibilities might a photographer or writer have?

  • I think one responsibility that photographers and writers have is to be truthful, especially when they are photographing or writing about other people. It is possible to misrepresent someone by showing only selected facts. In writing, this happens when we quote people out of context, but I think a picture can also be taken out of context. I think photographers and writers—and anyone else who reports on a situation to the public—have a responsibility to try to avoid this.

Connection to Today’s Learning:

• Say: Today, we’ll read about Toyo Miyatake, a man who was imprisoned at Manzanar and worked in secret to photograph what happened there. We will think together about the kinds of photos he took and his motivation for doing so.

Guide students in understanding record as both a noun and a verb through examples and pronunciation.

Generating Situations, Context, and Examples

Target Words: record (noun, verb)

Say these Directions: We’re learning about the word record today as a noun and a verb. Look at the word record displayed and listen as I pronounce it both ways. First as a verb, then as a noun, and notice the difference: “Let’s record a record.”

Introduce the Word: Display record twice and pronounce it both ways: first as a verb, then as a noun. Model the difference in pronunciation as needed: “Let’s record a record.”

• Ask: Have you seen these words before? Where?

Provide Examples: Explain that record is both a verb (ri-KORD) and a noun (REH-kerd) and that the versions have related meanings.

• Say: We record something when we create a way to remember it in the future. When we do so, a record is the thing we create.

• Say: You may know that vinyl records are a way of storing and playing music. They were very popular before we had CDs and other digital media. Why do you think they are called records? (Possible answer: They preserve music so it can be heard again in the future.)

• Say: Think of the last time you went to the doctor’s office. What information did they record during your checkup? (Possible answers: temperature, height, weight)

Language Connection: The Spanish word recordar means “to remember” and is a cognate of the English record. Though not identical in meaning, it may be helpful for students to notice that recording something “helps you remember.” Both come from Latin recordari, which in turn can be analyzed as “[to bring] back (re-) to one’s heart [or mind] (cord-).”

Generate New Examples: Brainstorm situations in which someone might want to record something, either to help themselves remember or for others to see later. Ask what kinds of records they would create in each situation.

1. To record a payment, a person might create a written record in a spreadsheet or checkbook.

2. To record a birthday party, someone might take pictures or a video. Those would then be a record of the event.

Build Word Relationships: Challenge students to use record as both a noun and an adjective to capture the same idea. If needed, offer a version using one part of speech; have students identify the part of speech in your example and then ask them to “translate.” For example:

• Say: Toyo Miyatake wanted to use his camera to record all aspects of camp life. (Possible “translation” with noun: Toyo Miyatake wanted his photos to be a record of all aspects of camp life.)

Add record (both meanings) to your Key Terms and Topics graphic organizer.

Once the discussion is complete, affirm the connection:

Connection to Today’s Learning:

• Say: The photographs of Toyo Miyatake, along with those of Dorothea Lange and Ansel Adams, are an important part of the record of life at the Manzanar camp. Today, we will read about Miyatake’s efforts to record camp life in detail.

Part A: Read Analytically (RI.7.6, SL.7.1.a) (15 minutes)

Introduce Toyo Miyatake and remind students that he was a member of the community: both the wider community of Japanese Americans and the community of people who were imprisoned at Manzanar. Invite them to consider how this influenced what he could photograph and what he chose to record.

Say these Directions: Read pages 50–53 of Seen and Unseen, focusing on Miyatake’s responsibility. Then discuss his constraints, opportunities, and motivations, using analytical verbs like reveals, documents, and emphasizes. Add helpful notes to your notes.

Provide guiding questions, such as:

• Ask: Look at the illustration on pages 54–55, which shows Miyatake’s secret camera being built. Tamaki could have illustrated Miyatake holding a finished camera. Instead, she shows the process — hands, wood scraps, tools. Why does showing the making of the camera matter?

  • Showing the process emphasizes how much effort, risk, and community cooperation went into creating this one tool. It shows resourcefulness under impossible conditions. Tamaki’s choice also shows that the camera was not just Miyatake’s — it took a friend in the carpentry shop to build it and a salesman to smuggle in film.

• Ask: What did Miyatake mean when he said he must record everything? (As you answer, consider multiple meanings of the word record.)

  • I think Miyatake meant “everything about the way people in the camp were being treated.” Miyatake told his son that “this kind of thing should never happen again,” so I think he mainly wanted to record the harsh and unjust conditions. I would not be surprised if he went out of his way to photograph things like guard towers and barbed-wire fences.

• Ask: How might Miyatake’s position in the community affect what he chose to document?

  • Before the war, Toyo Miyatake photographed special events such as weddings as well as family portraits. He probably would have still wanted to document special occasions in people’s lives so they would have a record of those occasions later. So I think Miyatake would have had two different “missions” as a photographer at Manzanar: to show the abuses in the camp but also to help people celebrate and remember any good times they had.

• Ask: Miyatake told his son Archie: “I have to record everything. This kind of thing should never happen again” (p. 54). He said this while he himself was imprisoned. What does it mean that he felt this responsibility while living under the same conditions he was documenting? What does his statement ask of us as readers, decades later?

  • Miyatake wasn’t a journalist visiting from outside; he was a prisoner documenting his own imprisonment. That makes his sense of responsibility more urgent and more personal. He wasn’t recording someone else’s suffering; he was recording his own community’s experience. His statement “this kind of thing should never happen again” asks future readers to actually look at what he documented and take it seriously, not just as history, but as a warning.

• Ask: Think about Miyatake’s experiences as compared with those of Dorothea Lange. How did Miyatake’s status as a prisoner (instead of an official photographer) limit his ability to photograph Manzanar? Did it provide any opportunities?

  • Because he was a prisoner at the camp, Miyatake was not allowed to have a camera for a long time. This meant he had to sneak around and be very careful about when and what he photographed, and he probably had to be extra careful taking any photos that had guards in them. At the same time, because he was Japanese American and a fellow prisoner, I think Miyatake might have been trusted more by the other incarcerated persons than someone from the outside. It might have been easier for him to persuade people to let him photograph them.

• Ask: Briefly examine the photographs printed on pp. 59, 75, 77, and 81. What stories are visible in Miyatake’s work? What might be left out?

  • Miyatake’s work shows the dismal conditions at the camp and the guard towers that watched over it, but he also records special occasions like weddings, New Year’s celebrations, and even a fishing trip.

  • There is not a lot that seems to be “left out” here, especially since Miyatake—because he worked in secret—didn’t follow the rules that Lange had to observe. One thing I do not see a lot of, however, is the landscape that surrounded the camp and how that affected camp life. I know Lange took that photograph of the dust storm and wonder if Miyatake took any photos like that.

Provide students with a confidence continuum (i.e., 1–5). As needed, model how to demonstrate a level of confidence using the continuum.

Part B: Compare Perspectives (RI.7.6, RI.7.9, SL.7.1.a) (15 minutes)

Guide students in comparing perspectives across sources by analyzing claims, evidence, and purpose. Facilitate discussion to help students synthesize ideas about responsibility and limitations in documenting history through the Collaborative Idea Board Routine.

Collaborative Idea Board

Say these Directions: Read and annotate the blog “Why Photojournalism Matters Now More Than Ever.” As you read, focus on:

• The importance of documenting events accurately.

• The responsibility of the recorder.

• How perspective affects what is shown or remembered.

• Say: Add any helpful information to your Context Capture organizer. Then, after you finish reading, we will discuss the article and questions as a class and record answers on the Collaborative Idea Board.

Have students write a brief reflection on documenting history using evidence from the texts.

Quick Write

Say these Directions: Write two to three sentences describing one insight you gained about documenting history from reading Seen and Unseen and “Why Photojournalism Matters.”

• One insight I have gained is that it is important to have a variety of perspectives when documenting history. People who are directly affected by an unjust situation—like incarceration under EO 9066—have an important perspective and should be given a chance to tell their story. But people “outside” the situation have a responsibility, too, because, like Lange, they may have resources and opportunities that those “inside” cannot access.

Instruct students to take notes in their Journal on the following prompt:

• Read pp. 54–59 of Seen and Unseen. In your Journal, take notes about how these pages support the statement that Miyatake tried to “record everything” he saw at the camp.