[OYAN] MS & HS teens can watch an Oregon documentary, write an essay and win money! (Deadline March 1) ** Essay contest now open **

[Jennifer Maurer]

Information provided by Deborah Gitlitz:

***please pardon the cross-posting***

The Minoru Yasui Day Essay Contest is now open for submissions!

Folks who work with teens/students, take note! Here’s a chance for your middle or high school teens to win money -- and learn important facts about Oregon history and civil rights at the same time.

What: The 2018 Minoru Yasui Day Essay Contest (deadline: March 1)

What Makes It Useful, Interesting, and Easy for You to Take Advantage Of:

·         Free, streaming, primary-source-based, inspiring, one-hour documentary. (Common Core connection!)

o    The film is about Oregon lawyer Minoru Yasui and the Japanese American internment during World War II.

·         Based in Oregon history and pertinent to current events.

·         Teens can write an essay for a chance to win cash.

·         Works as a library program or in partnership with a classroom. (Curriculum materials available!)

Quick Particulars:

·         Teens watch a short, free documentary film about civil rights history in Oregon.

o    The film is Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice.

o    It’s about the US government’s internment of Japanese-American Oregonians during WWII, and Min Yasui’s legal challenge to that practice. Lots of interesting footage and live interviews.

·         Educators (including librarians) can get a link to screen the documentary for free.

·         Here are just a few of the ways you might use the documentary:

o    Show it at your library.

o    Stream it and discuss it at a Teen Council or TAB meeting.

o    Partner with teachers to show it in the classroom.

o    Discuss it with a book group.

·         The documentary and its related websites are chock full of primary source materials -- great for supporting teachers and students with the Common Core standards.

o    www.minoruyasuifilm.org<http://www.minoruyasuifilm.org/>

o    https://www.minoruyasuitribute.org/copy-of-resources

o    https://www.facebook.com/minoruyasuilegacy/

·         Teens who submit an essay by March 1 have the chance to win a cash prize, have their work web published, and read their essay in Portland on March 28, designated by the state legislature as Minoru Yasui Day in Oregon (travel subsidies to Portland provided).

What Do I Do Next?

·         To access the film online, or to ask other questions, simply contact Holly Yasui at info at minoruyasuifilm.org<mailto:info at minoruyasuifilm.org>


More Details:

The Min Yasui legacy project and Oregon Nikkei Endowment are sponsoring the 2018 Minoru Yasui Day Essay Contest, open to all Oregon middle-school and high-school students. Please see: https://www.minoruyasuitribute.org/essaycontest for complete contest rules, and http://www.minoruyasuifilm.org/oregon-projects for a flyer. Educators including librarians and teachers are encouraged to screen the new documentary film, Never Give Up! Minoru Yasui and the Fight for Justice (www.minoruyasuifilm.org<http://www.minoruyasuifilm.org/>) and to help students to prepare their essays, which will be accepted from January 1 – March 1, 2018, by discussing the resource materials available on the Minoru Yasui Tribute website, and responding to the essay prompt, which is: “Explain the lessons learned from the life and legacy of Minoru Yasui and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. How do those lessons inform your position on current U.S. policies on immigration and national security?”

The film can be accessed online by contacting Holly Yasui at info at minoruyasuifilm.org<mailto:info at minoruyasuifilm.org>. Other resource materials are available at https://www.minoruyasuitribute.org/copy-of-resources, including copies of legal and historical documents related to Yasui’s legal case; unpublished writings by Yasui himself and others; and a bibliography, filmography and list of internet websites containing extensive information about Min Yasui. Middle-school curriculum materials for teachers are available through the Oregon Nikkei Legacy Center, please contact Cynthia Bayse at cynthia at oregonnikkei.org<mailto:cynthia at oregonnikkei.org>.

Minoru Yasui was the first Japanese American attorney in Oregon, and in 1942, he challenged the discriminatory military orders that led to the forced removal of all persons of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast and their imprisonment in War Relocation Authority (WRA) camps inland. He spent 9 months in solitary confinement in the Multnomah County Jail awaiting his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court which, in 1943, ruled against him. In spite of the great injustices that he, his family and community endured, Minoru Yasui continued for the rest of his life to defend the democratic ideals upon which our country was founded, and the human and civil rights of all people. In 2015, President Barack Obama posthumously awarded Minoru Yasui the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the first and only Oregonian to receive that highest civilian honor in the nation. In 2016, the Oregon State Legislature voted unanimously to designate March 28 – the day he initiated his legal test case – as Minoru Yasui Day.

The Essay Contest winners in both the middle-school and high-school categories will receive cash prizes and their work will be published in the Minoru Yasui Tribute Project webpage. First place winners and runners up will receive travel subsidies in order to read their work at a special awards ceremony in Portland on Minoru Yasui Day, March 28, 2018.

Posted on behalf of Holly Yasui, film director, who would like to encourage students to participate in the essay contest.





FYI,
Jen

Jen Maurer, MLS
School Library Consultant
jennifer.maurer at state.or.us<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us> | 503-378-5011 | www.oregon.gov/osl/ld<http://www.oregon.gov/osl/ld>
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