Global Issues Resource Center
"Teachers in a democracy should conduct, not neglect, classroom discussion on curriculum-related controversial issues," suggests Dr. Thomas Kelly (Kelly, 1989) of John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Why? Because properly conducted, considerations of controversial issues provide both teachers and students a fruitful experience in enhancing the skills needed by a democratic citizenry.
As family members, friends, neighbors and workers, we frequently confront situations that require each of us to decide what actions constitute responsible behavior. How better to master this skill than by practicing in a safe and supportive classroom environment? And what better forum for debate than those historical events which, even today, prompt controversial reactions? Developing decision-making competencies also helps ensure the citizenship responsibilities and civic capabilities state proficiency tests demand. How better to shape an understanding of the democratic values we most respect than by confronting controversy?
In that spirit, the Global Issues Resource Center at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio has long prepared educators to bring issues into the classroom in ways that take the student experience beyond the textbook. The Center has a growing collection of curricula, videos and simulation games which offer multiple perspectives on such issues as global environmental degradation, nuclear proliferation and energy consumption around the world.
The Center also promotes the use of these resources through articles such as this one, designed to provide both a general framework outlining the skills and techniques of teaching controversial issues and to provide specific application of that framework to a variety of individual issues.
Begin with student interests. Develop an awareness of where the students are coming from and what they already know (or don't know) about the subject at hand. Tap into these interests and follow where students lead to formulate a collaborative study plan that culminates in looking at what happened with respect to this topic in historical terms. Trust the process so as to allow the teacher to be "a guide on the side," not "the sage on the stage."
When dealing with specific events or particular historical circumstances, this planning together will help narrow the issues under study or refine the questions being asked. Teachers should guide students during this process so as to avoid present-mindedness (judging the past solely in terms of present-day norms and values).
A rounded perspective on the historical roots of controversial issues is often unavailable if and when the textbook is the only resource used. Textbooks that recite dates and bare facts alone, emphasize scientific technology while ignoring consequences of its use, give biased and sometimes incorrect information, or sway readers to one point of view, and preclude students from making their own judgments.
Consider information from original sources. The National Standards for History suggest that learners develop the ability to describe the past on its own terms, through the eyes and experiences of those who were there, as revealed through their literature, diaries, letters, debates, artifacts, and the arts.
Videos, posters, literature, poetry, and print media are all sources for research. Gathering research materials should be a joint responsibility of the teacher and students. Students thus create their own resource center and gather necessary information by topics, and could include pictures, posters, art work, essays, and poetry. These materials could be shared with other classes or with the community, e.g., a group of parents or seniors.
The collected materials gathered from library resources and interviews with veterans, survivors, and politicians will inevitably include conflicting reports and different points of view. Questions of the "morality" of actual events can then be discussed from these different points of view. Other questions that arise, such as "what are war criminals?" and "were there alternative solutions to resolve conflict?" can be used as a basis for debate or invitations to guests to share firsthand knowledge.
In examining varied sources for research, consider aspects of information shaping or "spin," as it is now called. What questions were not asked? What emphasis was given in the reporting? What is fact and what is propaganda?
Issues are controversial because there are contradictory positions which emerge from differing value systems.
Bring together the issues and the systems of values. Lockwood defines eight democratic values which he feels serve as a framework for reflecting on the larger principles and varied perspectives buried in every historical event:
Authority: a value concerning what rules or people should be obeyed and the consequences for disobedience;
Equality: a value concerning whether people should be treated in the same way;
Liberty: a value concerning what freedoms people should have and the limits that may just)fiably be placed on them;
Life: a value concerning when, if ever, it is justifiable to threaten or take a life;
Loyalty: a value concerning obligations to the people, traditions, ideas, and organizations of importance in one's life;
Promise-keeping: a value concerning the nature of duties that arise when promises are made;
Property: a value concerning what people should be allowed to own and how they should be allowed to use it;
Truth: a value concerning the expression, distortion, or withholding of accurate information. (Lockwood, 1985)
Again the National History standards suggest comparing competing historical narratives by contrasting different historians' choice of questions and comparing their use of sources reflecting different experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and points of view. Students should demonstrate how an emphasis on different causes contributes to different interpretations.
Throughout your study of a controversial issue, reaming is stronger if students have a chance to put themselves into other people's shoes as decision-makers and ordinary citizens alike.
Develop strategies that require the reamer to examine the prevailing social conditions, determine the interests of the players involved, understand the values that come into conflict in the situations studied, and empathize with those affected by policies adopted on the issue.
Try to assemble a complete list of the players in the decision-making process. Can students find evidence that the consequences of an event were considered from many points of view? Implement the Ohio Model Social Studies Curriculum suggestion that "given a series of related historical events or a single historical event, the learner will project how other choices made in those instances would have different consequences for today." Students ultimately should be encouraged to make their own analysis of the information compiled.
Students should be encouraged to show what they have learned in a variety of forms. Just as they may have been exposed to many different types of resources in the research gathering stage, such diversity can be reflected in their own expression of mastery, for example: news editorial, editorial cartoon, poetry, short story, lawyer's brief, art work, or video project.
During the 1995 Fiftieth Anniversary commemorations surrounding events associated with World War II, citizens, teachers and students alike had a particularly rich opportunity to address the controversial issues associated with wartime conflict. To share educational insights on one of those issues, the Global Issues Resource Center brought together a group of 35 educators to address various aspects of teaching about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, the event that ended the Second World War as it opened the nuclear age. Professor Lee Makela of Cleveland State University started the session with an historical overview and then led participants in brainstorming to find specific teaching applications useful when studying the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What follows is a summary of that overview and specific applications of the framework for teaching a controversial issue to a study of events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
During the early morning hours of August 6, 1945 a lone plane flew over the Japanese port city of Hiroshima and dropped the first atomic bomb ever used in warfare. Eight days later, on August 14th, Japan's government in Tokyo surrendered, bringing an end to the Second World War. For many, especially American soldiers fighting in the Pacific at the time, this sequence of events clearly indicated that the one event "caused" the other; in their hearts and minds, the use of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and, three days later, on Nagasaki had brought the war in the Pacific to a rapid conclusion, undoubtedly saving tens of thousands of lives on both sides of the conflict. Many Americans felt a suitable revenge had been wreaked as well on the nation which had begun the conflict four years earlier with a "sneak attack" on the Pacific fleet stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
Later analysis of the circumstances surrounding the use of this new weapon of mass destruction, however, questioned these assumed relationships. Some interpretations asserted that the bomb was used to demonstrate its horrific power to a newly emergent Cold War enemy, the Soviet Union, rather than to end the war with Japan. Others wondered whether if the war had not already ended in the European theater, the United States would have used the weapon on Germany, a fellow "Caucasian" nation. This interpretation raised speculation of racist intent. Questions were raised by military analyses as well about the strategic need to use a second atomic weapon on Nagasaki three days after the bombing of Hiroshima.
On the other side of the Pacific Ocean the Japanese, too, found themselves caught up in the aftermath of the bomb, dealing with medical and social problems resulting from radiation spewed by its use. A "nuclear allergy" developed among a large segment of the Japanese population, many of whom vowed "never again" as they joined in antinuclear protests portraying themselves as victims, not perpetrators, of wartime atrocities.
Fifty years later, in 1995, a political outcry greeted plans for an exhibit of the airship, the Enola Gay, which had carried the Bomb to its target in Japan, when curators at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC, attempted to fit the use of the weapon into a larger context and to question some of the most strongly held assumptions about its use and consequences. Issues of historical memory, commemoration, and revisionism swirled through the halls of Congress and the media. Numerous public forums convened to discuss the "political correctness" of an exhibit designed originally to honor the fiftieth anniversary of the first-and, to date, the last-use of atomic weapons in warfare.
Without doubt the consideration of what happened that fateful day in August of 1945, what preceded the decision to use the atomic bomb and the consequences of its use on both sides of the Pacific-and around the world- represents a series of topics steeped in historical controversy. For the educator, however, the controversial nature of the debate over these issues invites significant opportunities to inculcate critical thinking skills, an enhanced ability to sift through conflicting accounts before reaching a decision and a willingness to consider the moral and ethical dimensions of the choice-making process.
After eliciting from students even the barest of "facts" about the atomic bomb, Hiroshima and/or the Second World War, a fuller picture can tee suggested through the use of a brief documentary film, a set of posters, slides or illustrated books documenting the event itself as a more-or-less isolated occurrence.
The series of twenty large (31" x 43") posters (these and all other resources herein are available at the Global Issues Resource Center) with photos showing the effects of the atomic bombings provided by the Japanese Peace and Cultural Association of Hiroshima can be particularly useful at this point. The shocking nature of these pictorial resources needs to be taken into account but will surely lead to any number of questions which can then be shaped into a coherent strategic inquiry into the larger historical context in which the event took place. Possible avenues to pursue are:
Ask the students what they know about what they see in the photos.
Discuss what they have heard about the bombing, what their family members say about the war.
Students might select one poster and find out more about what it depicts.
As a creative project, have students write a story about the impact of the bombing on a person in a photo, or present a dramatic reading describing events depicted in the photos.
In developing a context for the bombing of Hiroshima, those constructing it (teacher and / or students) might want, for example, to place the use of the atomic bomb not only at the end of World War II but also at the advent of the Nuclear Age and the Cold War. Political factors, such as the Soviet Union's interest in East Asia and Germany's earlier surrender in Europe, need to be considered along with the very human apprehensions arising from the devastating battlefield losses incurred among both Japanese and American forces in the months preceding Hiroshima. The enormous costs involved in the technological development of the atomic bomb need to be mentioned as an influential economic factor operable in the context of the times as well.
Ending the War Against Japan: Science, Morality and the Atomic Bomb, a "Choices for the 21st Century" curriculum unit published by the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University, includes essays on total war in the twentieth century and the development of the atomic bomb as well as discussions of the decision to drop the bomb and its consequences.
Students might further research the development of atomic weapons. Consider how new technologies affect warfare.
Encourage students to examine values and ethical responsibility as they relate to scientists and policy-makers.
Francis Kazemek, an associate professor of education at Eastern Washington University, researched the extent to which texts gloss over important topics. The atomic bombing of Hiroshima, which Kazemek calls "a morally complex action," was allocated a paragraph (two at most) in the 50 elementary and secondary history and social studies textbooks he surveyed. "Hardly enough," the researcher says, "to present even a cursory overview of the physical, moral, and political implications of the event." (Black, 1995) Clearly there is a need to go beyond textbooks and general reference materials. A look at primary sources might include the media and elements of popular culture, including the political cartoons, popular songs, posters, signs and symbols which have a role in shaping opinion.
Expanding student horizons to consider evidence derived not on]y from American sources is eminently possible in dealing with the various issues surrounding Hiroshima. The video Nagasaki Journey, for instance, details the aftermath of the atomic bomb through the moving personal stories of two Japanese survivors, as well as the recollections of a U.S. Marine who occupied the city shortly after the end of the war.
Have students consider the effects of the bombing on participants, both civilian and military.
Examine what the video shows us about the nature of war and its human consequences.
Investigate the plight of hibakusha, Japanese (or their children) tainted for life by having been present in Hiroshima on that fateful day.
Examine the event and its consequences from the Russian vantage point or that of the Chinese victims of Japanese aggression.
Read short excerpts from oral histories of the war years or interview veterans of the War in the Pacific in search of other perspectives.
Have students draw a political cartoon or poster reflecting sentiments of the time about the atomic bombing.
The various interpretive perspectives surrounding the decision to use the atom bomb on Hiroshima are amply and fully expounded in the various books and articles appearing at the time of the Enola Gay controversy in 1995; taken together they provide an exemplary source of alternative views sure to spark interest among students consulting them.
Video documentaries from that same period can provide useful overviews as well. In the 60-minute ABC news special Hiroshima: Why the Bomb was Dropped, Peter Jennings narrates news footage and interviews on the history of the development of the bomb, the decision to drop it and its aftereffects. Compare this video with Nagasaki Journey and examine the implications for the connection between decision-making and the consequences of those decisions.
Questions provoking a consideration of democratic values tied to the Lockwood framework might include some or all of the following: How does the nature of war contribute to and/or restrict individual freedom (liberty)? Under what circumstances is it justifiable to take the lives of civilians during wartime (life)? How were the actions of combatants on both sides of the conflict in World War II influenced by obligations to country or religious traditions (loyalty)? Who had the ultimate authority to drop the bomb (authority)? Can the military oath requiring combatants to "follow orders" ever be questioned (promise-keeping)? If you own a bomb, should you alone be able to decide when and where to drop it (property)? Who are the recorders of the Hiroshima event and why does that matter (truth)? Was there a shared humanity between our citizens and the people of Hiroshima and, if so, should that have influenced the decision to drop the bomb (equality)?
Have students hold a debate, considering the various perspectives of decision-makers.
Consider a contemporary conflict (Bosnia, Middle East) from the perspective of conflicting democratic values.
Ample resources are available for student exploration of those affected by the blast, including John Hersey's Hiroshima and other memoirs; The Hiroshima Murals: The Art of Iri Maruki and Toshi Maruki and other collections of photographs, paintings and poetry by survivors; the literary works inspired by the events, such as Masuji Ibuse's Black Rain; and videos such as Nagasaki Journey.
Writings by those involved in the development of the atomic bomb or the decision to utilize it are also readily available. Consult especially materials developed by the Watson Institute for its curriculum unit Ending the War Against Japan: Science, Morality and the Atomic Bomb.
Have students express their understanding of the atomic bombing experience by writing a diary entry or a letter from a survivor.
Consider a staged debate among those involved in the development of the atomic bomb, those who were part of the decision-making process determining its battlefield use, those present in Hiroshima at the time and those (American and Japanese) affected by its immediate and long-term aftermath.
Why did President Truman originally condone the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima? What factors did he consider in reaching his decision? What did he not know about, ignore or consider unimportant at the time? Who else was involved or consulted in the decision-making process? What particular interests or positions in the debate did each represent? Why did they assume the positions they took regarding the use of the bomb? What postwar events and circumstances affected later interpretations of Truman's decision?
How was the 1995 debate over the Smithsonian's Enola Gay exhibit influenced by these earlier reconsiderations? What roles do "historical memory" and / or "historical revisionism" play in the way in which historical events such as Hiroshima are remembered and utilized in contemporary political, cultural or social debates?
Materials exist sketching in the Japanese perception of the circumstances and events leading to the decision to surrender at the end of the Pacific War. An exploration of this material might well shed light on how the same events can be viewed and interpreted from vastly different perspectives with consequent different conclusions reached as a result.
A simulation, such as Judgment: A Simulation of President Trumun Facing Trial for His Decision to Drop the Atomic Bomb, is particularly useful to a far-reaching consideration of the many issues raised by the curriculum unit as a whole. In this role-playing activity for grades 9 through 12, Truman comes to trial for the war crime of dropping the atomic bomb, a simulation that helps students understand the events of World War II, the pressure on leaders as they make decisions and the responsibilities of leaders for moral and rational judgments. Students assume roles of specific historical figures as well as judge, attorneys, court reporter and members of the tribunal. In ten 45minute sessions they research their roles, participate in the trial, study and discuss options in the nuclear decisions dilemma and debate the final judgment.
All the resources cited above may be borrowed from the Global Issues Resource Center, Cuyahoga Community College Eastern Campus, East I Bldg., 4250 Richmond Road, Cleveland, OH 44122, (216) 9872224, email GIRCADM@Iibrary.cpl.org or the dialup catalog of the Cleveland Public Library (CLEVNET). An annotated bibliography describing more than 50 books, videos, posters and activities related to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki that are loaned by the Center is available. There is no charge for borrowing books and videos. A nominal fee is charged for renting posters and simulations.
References
Kelly, Thomas E. "Leading Class Discussions of Controversial Issues," Social Education, October 1989.
Lockwood, Alan L and David E. Harris. Reasoning with Democratic Values, Teachers College Press, 1985.
Black, Susan. "Controlling the Curriculum," Executive Educator, the National School Boards Association, May 1995, pp. 34-41.