2007 Pearl Harbor Workshop: Dear Colleague

Workshop Content and Format

Pearl Harbor has become an enduring part of U.S. popular history and culture as an event that drew the United States into World War II and forever changed this nation. As an iconic landmark of American history, the USS Arizona Memorial is uniquely important for U.S. national identity. In Japan, although Pearl Harbor is far less visible in popular history and culture, it is seen as the seminal event that brought the nation into a full-blown conflict with the United States and its ultimate defeat. However, the way Pearl Harbor is remembered today in Japan understandably differs from the context of American memory.

While many Americans regard Pearl Harbor as a site of tragedy from which the nation emerged victorious, Pearl Harbor for many Japanese is often seen as a "mistake" and a reminder of the tragedies of war and the devastations that followed the use of atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the same time, because many Japanese view Pearl Harbor as the place where the conflict between the United States and Japan began, little attention is given to the political and geopolitical developments in Asia and the Pacific that led to the attack and the impact that it had on the Asia Pacific region as a whole. Similarly, this longer historical context is often lacking in popular American representations of Pearl Harbor, which typically begin on the morning of December 7, 1941.

“Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, Memorial” will address this lack of historical context by exploring the multiple histories that converge at Pearl Harbor while illuminating one of the most important (if at times antagonistic) bilateral relationships in the 20th century—that between the United States and Japan—and the impact of that relationship on both nations’ international affairs. Importantly, it will examine the cultural as well as intercultural significance of Pearl Harbor by highlighting not only American and Japanese but also Hawaiian and diverse American experiences, especially those of Japanese Americans. Doing so reminds us that despite the mythic status of the Pearl Harbor story in American culture, there are, in fact, a number of “Pearl Harbors,” with different impacts and memories for diverse Americans and for people throughout the world.

During the workshop, you will visit the Arizona Memorial and related attack sites in order to gain a sense of the time and place represented by these historic resources. Since the history of Pearl Harbor is still a living history, you will also have the unique opportunity to meet with Pearl Harbor survivors, WW II generation residents of Hawaii, and Japanese Americans who spent the wartime years in internment camps and to experience history “come alive” through their oral histories.

Importantly, the workshop will model ways to teach collaboratively. You will engage in rigorous conversations with leading U.S. and Japanese scholars about the historical significance and meanings of the events surrounding the attacks and important cultural and historical issues that continue to shape national perceptions of Pearl Harbor. Through hands-on sessions, you will work closely with them and with a small group of teachers from Japan as well as with other participants as you explore issues of content and pedagogy in teaching Pearl Harbor and develop plans for collaborative projects and lesson plans that integrate materials from the workshop. In this way, the workshop will serve as a catalyst for creating a network of educators dedicated to ongoing scholarship, professional development, and collaboration.

To prepare you for the workshop and to enable you to participate actively in the discussions, you will be required to complete readings and to explore several websites before attending the workshop (click here for the reading/website list).

A digital repository, such as a Weblog or a Wiki, will be created in order to enable participants to share teaching ideas as well as more developed unit/lesson plans along with maps, images, and other data sets.

Who
Our workshop, which will accommodate 40 teachers per session, is designed principally for middle and high school classroom educators teaching humanities subjects in public, private, parochial, and charter schools, as well as home-schooling parents. Other K-12 school personnel, including those who teach non-humanities content as well as administrators, substitute teachers, classroom paraprofessionals, and librarians, are eligible to participate, subject to available space.

Teachers at schools in the United States or its territorial possessions, or Americans teaching in foreign schools where at least 50 percent of the students are American nationals, are eligible for this program. Applicants must be U.S. citizens, residents of U.S. jurisdictions, or foreign nationals who have been residing in the United States or its territories for at least the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. Foreign nationals teaching abroad are not eligible to apply.

Where
The workshop will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii, and will involve visits to the USS Arizona Memorial, and other historic sites around the island of Oahu, such as the Hickam Army Airfield, the Ford Island Naval Air Station, the Wheeler Army Airfield, the Schofield Barracks, and the National Memorial of the Pacific. Participants who wish to visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial, also at Pearl Harbor, should make plans to visit it before or after the workshop.

Workshop sessions will be held at the East-West Center. The Center’s 21-acre campus is centrally located in Honolulu’s Manoa Valley and adjacent to the University of Hawaii and its main research library, which houses extensive collections on Hawaiian and Asia Pacific studies.

Also, teachers selected to participate will receive a stipend of $500. Stipends, which will be paid at the beginning of each workshop session, are intended to help cover ordinary living expenses (including lodging and meals), some books, and travel expenses to and from the workshop location.

Travel supplements primarily for those traveling long distances will also be allocated by region with west coast and midwest participants receiving reimbursements of 40% and east coast 45% of actual cost.* This additional travel assistance is intended to help defray the cost of air travel, but will not cover the full cost. Participants are required to submit receipt of actual cost by June 15, 2007*. Please note that both stipends and travel supplements are taxable.

Participants are required to attend all scheduled sessions and to engage fully in all workshop activities. Participants who, for any reason, do not attend the entire workshop session must refund a pro-rata portion of their stipend.

A small number of faculty housing (either studio or one-bedroom units with kitchen, private bath, and cable TV) and special-rate rooms at the Doubletree Alana and Waikiki Marriott will be available to participants on a space-available basis. Rates for the faculty housing with private bath facilities range from $35 (for studio) to $48 (for one bedroom with kitchen) per night, based on availability. Rates for the hotel rooms range from $169 to $179 per night, depending on availability.

East-West Center housing facilities are located in close proximity to workshop facilities and the University of Hawaii library. Participants choosing to stay in hotels will be responsible for arranging their own transportation to/from the workshop. Visitor parking is available in designated areas. A temporary parking pass ($3/day) allowing participants to park in a designated area will be made available, but must be arranged through the East-West Center at least two weeks before arrival.

High-speed Internet access is available in all East-West Center housing facilities. PCs must have an Ethernet port and cable. Ethernet cables can be purchased in the main Center residence hall. Computers will also be available during the workshop sessions and at other times.

Also, project faculty have been recruited to represent the history of Pearl Harbor in the broader context of U.S.-Japan relations and the Pacific War (Peter Duus, Stanford University) and U.S. diplomatic history (Emily Rosenberg, DeWitt Wallace Professor of History at Macalester College); in terms of issues of history, memory, and memorial (Edward Linenthal, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and the new editor of the Journal of American History -- invited) and of American diversity and Japanese American experience (Gary Mukai, Stanford University); and in Hawaiian (Jonathan Osorio, University of Hawaii) and international perspectives (Yujin Yaguchi, Tokyo University and Japanese educators from various institutions/schools). In addition, teacher-consultants will facilitate the development of classroom strategies and materials for teaching Pearl Harbor issues. This team will work jointly to offer a program that brings critical and informed perspectives on teaching Pearl Harbor as a landmark of American (and world) history and culture.

Submitting Applications by Fax/Email
Faxed and online applications will be accepted.

However, when sending applications by fax, please send only one (1) complete collated set of your application materials, including a signed letter of recommendation printed on an official letterhead. Address your application to AsiaPacificEd Program and fax to: (808) 944-7070.

The following procedure must be followed when submitting your application materials by email:

Faxed/Emailed applications, including the recommendation letter, must be received by midnight (Hawaii Standard Time) of March 15, 2007.

Submission of Applications and Notification Procedure
Completed paper applications should be postmarked no later than March 15, 2007, and sent to the AsiaPacificEd Program/East-West Center, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96848.

Fax and email applications must be received by midnight (Hawaii Standard Time) on March 15, 2007.

Successful applicants will be notified of their selection by April 16, 2007 and will have until April 23, 2007 to accept or decline the offer. Applicants who will not be home during the notification period should provide an address and phone number where they can be reached. No information concerning the status of an application will be available prior to the official notification period.

NEH Equal Opportunity Officer, 1100 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506. TDD: (202) 606-8282 (this is a special telephone device for the Deaf).

East-West Center Equal Opportunity Officer, 1601 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 96848. (808) 944-7111.

Contact
Should you have any questions or need further assistance, please contact:

Rosita MacDonald
AsiaPacificEd Program
East-West Center
1601 East-West Road Honolulu,
HI 96848
TEL: 808-944-7378; FAX: 808-944-7070
EMAIL: macdonar@eastwestcenter.org
WEBSITE: www.AsiaPacificEd.org

Dear Colleague: