2008 Pearl Harbor Workshop

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 the United States. 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.

Our NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshop, “Pearl Harbor: History, Memory, Memorial,” will provide the larger historical and cultural context for understanding the Pearl Harbor attacks by illuminating one of 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 explore the multiple histories that converge at Pearl Harbor—including not only American and Japanese but also Hawaiian and diverse American experiences, especially those of Americans of Japanese ancestry—reminding 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, participants 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, participants 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. Participants 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, participants will work closely with the scholars as well as with a group of teachers from Japan and with one another as they 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.

Grads Click here for a draft daily schedule (subject to change).

Click on the links below for short "video tours" of the 2007 NEH Landmarks Workshop on Pearl Harbor:

To prepare for the workshop and for active involvement in the discussions, participants will be required to complete readings and to explore several websites before attending the workshop (reading list forthcoming).

Anticipated Outcomes

Designed to present the best available scholarship on Pearl Harbor and related history, this workshop will enable participants to:

At the conclusion of the workshop, 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. Individuals who have previously participated in the workshop are also not eligible. Individuals may not apply to study with a director of a Landmarks project who is a family member. Although individuals may request information about as many workshops as they wish, they may apply to and participate in no more than two Landmarks of American History and Culture Workshops. Preference will be given to those who are new to the Landmarks program.

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 Fort DeRussy Army Museum, Hickam Army Airfield, the Ford Island Naval Air Station, and the National Cemetery of the Pacific. Participants will also have the opportunity to visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial, the Pacific Aviation Museum, and the USS Bowfin Submarine and Museum, also at Pearl Harbor.

NOTE: The July 26-August 1, 2007 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.

NOTE: The August 2-8, 2007 workshop sessions will be held at the Hawaii Tokai International College. Hawaii Tokai’s 19-story, high rise campus is within walking distance of historic Waikiki and less than two miles from the East-West Center as well as the University of Hawaii’s main research library.

Cost

Thanks to the NEH Landmarks of American History and Culture grant and the additional support provided by the Arizona Memorial Museum Association, there is no fee for attending the workshop.

Also, teachers selected to participate will receive a stipend of $500. Stipends, which will be paid at the end 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 on a case-by-case basis. This additional travel assistance is intended to help defray the cost of air travel, but will not cover the full cost. It will be made available after both workshop sessions are over. 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.

Facilities
East-West Center Japanese Garden

East-West Center

As a courtesy to participants, the East-West Center will make dorm rooms with shared co-ed bathrooms and shared kitchen facilities available in three co-ed residence halls on a space available basis for both workshops. A morning shuttle service from the East-West Center to Hawaii Tokai and an afternoon shuttle service from Hawaii Tokai to the East-West Center will be available during the August 2-8 session.

Telephone service, bedding, and linen are provided in all rooms. Room cleaning services, towels, and soaps are provided. However, participants may wish to bring an additional set of towels. No other toiletries are provided. Single rooms are $21/nt; double rooms (single or double occupancy) are $33/nt. Double rooms are furnished with two single beds.

A small number of East-West Center faculty housing (either studio or one-bedroom units with kitchen, private bath, and cable TV) will also be available on a first-come, first-served basis. Rates range from $38 (for studio) to $52 (for one bedroom with kitchen) per night, based on availability.

Please be advised that East-West Center dorm rooms and faculty housing are not air-conditioned. Fans are provided.

High-speed Internet access is available in all East-West Center accommodations. PCs must have an Ethernet port and cable. Ethernet cables can be purchased for $5 from the Center’s Hale Manoa residence hall. Courtesy computers with Internet access will also be available during the workshop sessions and at other times.

East-West Center accommodations are located in close proximity to the East-West Center workshop facilities and the University of Hawaii library.

Hawaii Tokai International College

During the workshop period of August 2-8, 2008, double occupancy, a limited number of co-ed dorm rooms with private baths will also be available at Hawaii Tokai International College at the rate of $41/person. All Hawaii Tokai dorm rooms are air-conditioned and have views of downtown Honolulu, Waikiki, or Diamond Head. Each room also comes equipped with a telephone, a television, and a mini-refrigerator. Laundry facilities with coin-operated washers and dryers are located on each floor.

Hawaii Tokai housing facilities are located in close proximity to Hawaii Tokai’s workshop facilities. Visitor parking is available in designated areas. A temporary parking pass ($2/day) will be made available.

Twelve computer terminals located within the library will be available for participant use on a first-come, first-served basis during library hours (8:00 am - 9:00 pm). Wireless Internet access is available for participant use. The cost of WiFi will be covered by the workshop, courtesy of the Arizona Memorial Museum Association. Participants seeking WiFi access must have their laptop up-to-date on virus protection software. Each laptop will be reviewed by Hawaii Tokai’s IT Specialist. WiFi cards will be made available for those participants whose laptop does not already contain a WiFi reader. WiFi access is available throughout the building; however, participants should note that there are some “blind spots.”

Waikiki Hotels

A small number of special-rate rooms at the Ocean Resort and Waikiki Marriott will be available to participants on a space-available basis. Rates for the hotel rooms range from $73 (Ocean Resort) to $186 (Waikiki Marriott) per night, depending on availability. Participants choosing to stay in hotels will be responsible for arranging their own transportation to/from the workshop.

Parking

Visitor parking is available in designated areas at the East-West Center and at Hawaii Tokai. A temporary parking pass ($3/day at the East-West Center and $2/day at Hawaii Tokai) will be made available, but must be arranged at least two weeks before arrival.

Project Faculty and Staff

The workshop project director is Namji Steinemann. Steinemann, who directs the AsiaPacificEd Program, the East-West Center’s primary program for K-12 teachers, will work closely with Geoffrey White, professor of anthropology and senior fellow at the East-West Center; and Daniel Martinez, National Park Service historian at the USS Arizona Memorial. This team brings together experience with developing programs for teaching about Asia and the Pacific in U.S. schools (Steinemann), public education concerning Pearl Harbor and its history as well as academic expertise on the representation of Pearl Harbor in American culture (White), and knowledge of Pearl Harbor history and of the Memorial as a national historic site (Martinez).

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, William H. Bonsall Professor of Japanese History, Emeritus, and Senior Fellow, by courtesy, Hoover Institution, Stanford University) and in terms of issues of history, memory, and memorial (Emily Rosenberg, Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine); of American diversity and Japanese American experience (Gary Mukai, Director of Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education, Stanford University); and in Hawaiian (Jonathan Osorio, Director of Kamakakuokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies, University of Hawaii) and “local” perspectives (John Rosa, formerly Assistant Professor of Asian Pacific Studies at Arizona State University and currently a high school social studies teacher at the Kamehameha School in Honolulu, Hawaii), and international perspectives (Yujin Yaguchi, Tokyo University, and Japanese educators from various institutions/schools). In addition, a master teacher (Jean Johnson, World History Association) 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.

Faculty Biographies' Forthcoming.

Application Procedures and Checklist of Application Materials

In order to be considered for the workshop, all applicants must provide three copies of the following collated items if submitting paper applications (see below for procedures for submitting your application by fax/email):

Submitting Applications by Fax/Email

Faxed and online applications will be accepted.

However, when sending applications by fax, please send only one (1) complete 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 to :

Faxed/Emailed applications, including the recommendation letter, must be received by midnite (Hawaii Standard Time) of March 17, 2008.

Selection Criteria

A selection committee (consisting of the project director, one of the project scholars/specialists, and a veteran teacher) will read and evaluate all properly completed applications. Special consideration is given to the likelihood that an applicant will benefit professionally and personally from the workshop experience. Therefore, it is important to address each of the following factors in preparing the application essay:

Submission of Applications and Notification Procedure

Completed paper applications should be postmarked no later than March 17, 2008, and sent to the attention of the workshop project director, Namji Steinemann, Director, 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 17, 2008.

FAX #: (808) 944-7070
EMAIL: asiapacificed@eastwestcenter.org

Successful applicants will be notified of their selection by April 16, 2008 and will have until April 23, 2008 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.

Dear Colleague: