Assignment #4: Public Relations Assignment

LIS 650, Fall 2005

Dr. Andrew Wertheimer

Lynette Teruya

November 17, 2005

Getting Started

To get started on this project, I sent an e-mail to the manager of the Japanese Cultural

Center of Hawaii’s Resource Center, Mrs. Jane Kurahara. I told her that I was interested in

working on a public relations project for the JCCH as part of the LIS 650 assignment and asked

if there was anything for me to do. She responded and we set up a meeting at the Resource

Center for the afternoon of Wednesday, October 26.

I met with Mrs. Kurahara, as well as with the Public Relations Director, Ms. Shayna

Coleon. We spent about 30 minutes in the meeting talking about projects done in the past by

other LIS students and about some of the JCCH’s current events. We decided on a PR project

for the JCCH’s outreach program’s “Discovery Box” for the exhibit entitled, “Dark Clouds Over

Paradise”: World War II Hawaii Japanese Internees’ Story.

The Project

My PR project was to create a brochure to promote this Discovery Box. I was given

copies of handouts to read about the exhibit and about the Discovery Box program as

background information. This particular Discovery Box contains a set of materials that makes

up a teaching unit on the topic of Hawaii’s Japanese-Americans’ experiences in internment

camps. It includes videotapes, DVDs, photos, written materials (poems, diary entries, etc.),

activities and lesson plans with which teachers of grades 5 through 12 could teach children about

a part of Hawaii’s history and civil rights.

In total, I spent about 7 hours doing the readings, layouts, writing and proofreading the

product. The most difficult part was the layout. I experimented with two different programs

(Microsoft Publisher and Microsoft Word). I started out with the Publisher but when I could not

get the background exactly as I wanted it and it did not print well, I started all over again using

Word because I could manipulate the layout better. However, I still had a problem with the

margins because my printer had a larger margin requirement than I would have liked. But at

least the margins looked more balanced with the Word program.

The other problem I had was with the reading materials. They were difficult to read

because the sentences were too lengthy with little punctuation and sometimes that made it

confusing. Because these were educational materials, I was rather surprised at the way they were

written. I had to read the materials over several times before I could grasp the important parts

and re-word them.

I had to do some photo editing (resizing, changing the contrast and brightness ratio) also

so that the pictures could fit into my layout. The most difficult part of this portion of the

assignment was lightening the photo just the right amount so that I could use it in the

background. It took several tries until I was somewhat satisfied with the result.

Reflection

In doing this assignment, it made me more aware and drove home the point that it takes a

good deal of planning in order to get to the final product. First, you have to do the groundwork

by doing the research about the project. Then, you have to think of your audience, and only then

can you begin to design your product. You must keep your audience in mind throughout the

process. When doing this project, I also had to keep in mind the information that the client had

wanted in this brochure. Sometimes there is so much information that needs to be packed into

the product but you have to think of a way to make it not appear that way. You have to be

concise and get your point across with as little words as necessary because you only have a

limited amount of space.

Another thing that was different about this assignment was that you had to be creative

because it involved a visual product. You had to make it somewhat appealing so that someone

would want to read and look at the brochure all the way through. This was difficult because it

was not at all like writing a term paper. However, it was challenging and quite fun to develop

this PR product and provided an added dimension to learning about the marketing aspect of

management. I hope the JCCH will like this final product and can make use of it.

Surrounded by barbed wires, their loyalties questioned, many Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in internment camps spread across the United States during World War II. While the experiences of the Japanese- Americans from the U.S. mainland are well-documented, many of the stories of Hawaii’s Japanese-American internees often go untold.

As a result, many in Hawaii do not know about this important part of Hawaii’s history. Did you know that we had two internment camps here in Hawaii? Do you know where they were? Do you know how many Japanese- Americans from Hawaii were sent to internment camps either here or on the mainland?

Japanese-American internee being photographed

What is the “Dark Clouds Over Paradise”: World War II Hawaii Japanese Internees’ Story Discovery Box?

It is a collection of primary and secondary resources of documents, photos, videos, DVDs and lesson plan suggestions that teachers can use to make history come alive for students.

What’s in the Discovery Box? DVD, “Silent Suffering for the Sake

of the Children”, which gives an overview of the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans in Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast

Videotape of an actual oral history interview with an Hawaii internee

“Labels”, a 23-minute DVD, is a dramatization about present day problems of “labeling” or name-calling and possible options to make a positive difference

Five Research/Resource sets that include essential questions and resources to research; to be used for cooperative learning jig-saw group research

Teacher reference binder containing reference information by scholars such as Dennis Ogawa and Tetsuden Kashima

Some reference materials such as Poets Behind Barbed Wire, compiled by Jiro and Kay Nakano, and Ganbare by Patsy Saiki

Sand Island Internment Camp

Sand Island Internment Camp

Why is knowledge of this historic experience important to today’s youth?Nationally, many students have little exposure to the World War II internment of the Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Hawaii and the West Coast. Learning about the decisions made during this period of time and about the life-altering effects they had on peoples’ lives will help students to think critically about civil liberties and the responsibilities of being a citizen in a democracy. It will contribute toward students’ historical empathy and understandings of the challenges to civil rights during threatening times.

FOR GRADES 5-12Content and Performance Standards The content and lessons are aligned to the following Hawaii Content and Performance Standards for Social Studies: HISTORY

Historical EmpathyStudents learn to judge the past on its own terms and use that knowledge to understand present-day issues, problems and decision-making

Change, Continuity, CausalityStudents employ chronology to understand change and/or continuity and cause and/or effect in history

Historical InquiryStudents use the tools and methods of historians to transform learning from memorizing historical data to “doing history”

Historical Perspectives and InterpretationsStudents explain historical events with multiple interpretations rather than explanations that point to historical linearity or inevitability

POLITICAL SCIENCE/CIVICS Students understand roles, rights (personal,

economic, political), and responsibilities of American citizens and exercise them in civic action (e.g. proposing alternatives to conflict or inequalities and practicing ho’oponopono)

“Dark Clouds Over Paradise”:

World War II Hawaii Japanese Internees’

Story

DISCOVERY BOX

For more information about the Discovery Box

please contact: Japanese Cultural Center of

Hawaii Resource Center

2454 South Beretania StreetHonolulu, HI 96826

Phone: (808) 945-7633, ext.42E-mail:

resource.center@jcch.com

Honoring our heritage. E

mbracing our diversity. Sharing our

future.2454 South Beretania

StreetH

onolulu, HI 96826

TEL.: (808) 945-7633

FAX: (808) 944-1133w

ww

.jcch.com“Dark Clouds Over

Paradise”: World War II Hawaii Japanese Internees’

Story

DISCOVERY BOX

A tool for teaching children (grades 5-12) the lessons of

civil rights and liberties through the past experiences of

Hawaii’s Japanese-American

NON-PROFIT ORG.

U.S. PostagePAID

Honolulu, HIPermit No.

891