How Does History Count? Exploring Japanese-American Internment through Digital Sources

On February 19, 1942, Executive Order 9066 authorized the detention of around 110,000 people of Japanese descent, most of them American citizens living on the west coast. On the basis of ethnicity alone, having committed no crime, and given no trial, they were stripped of their rights and forcibly relocated to several detention centers, where they lived for up to four years surrounded by barbed wire and watched by armed guards. Many documents, images, and other materials that survive from this terrible episode of U.S. history are now available online. In this data science connector course, students will learn emerging digital methods for conducting historical research, which they will apply to the study of Japanese-American Internment. Classroom exercises will be hands-on and involve working directly with primary sources, using and expanding upon skills learned in the Foundations of Data Science class.