Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Curriculum Archives topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Chatham County students, in partnership with National Geographic, present research on Japanese American incarceration
Summary
Students from Chatham Central High and Bennett School presented a National Geographic-supported project documenting Japanese American incarceration during WWII, including survivor testimony and an origami-crane memorial; the board praised the student work and accepted a request to display the project at Chatham Central.
Amy King, an American history teacher at Chatham Central High School, and her students presented a yearlong National Geographic Explorer Educator Exchange project on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, documenting Japanese American incarceration during World War II and its continuing effects.
The students, who worked with National Geographic documentary photographer Haruka Sakaguchi, traced the national context from the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor through President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 and the relocation of more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry, noting that roughly two-thirds were U.S. citizens. In remarks introducing the project, Amy King said the classroom work transformed a curriculum objective into public-facing research and teaching materials that will be published as lesson plans for other teachers.
Haruka Sakaguchi, a National Geographic Explorer and documentary photographer, told the board, “This history is now in their hands,” describing the collaboration that helped students move beyond textbooks to primary- and secondary-source research and oral histories. Student presenters summarized conditions inside the camps (barracks, limited privacy, communal restrooms) and discussed the wartime loyalty questionnaire, saying the responses to questions 27 and 28 produced deep ruptures in families and communities and, in some cases, moved detainees to higher-security facilities such as Tule Lake.
The presentation included recorded testimony from a survivor (identified in the classroom materials and video; the transcript records variants of the surname), who described family separation, detention of her father, the trip to camps, and the long-term emotional and material consequences for her family. Students also described a student-led origami crane project inspired by Sadako Sasaki and the National Geographic film Loyal American; the class folded more than 150 cranes and created an American-flag interpretation made of cranes to be displayed at Chatham Central High School as a remembrance.
Board members and district staff praised the students for the sensitivity and thoroughness of the work. The chair asked staff to arrange for photographs and to include the presentation materials in district outreach. No formal board action was required; the presentation was listed as an information item and concluded with applause and thanks.
Speakers quoted in this article are identified in board materials and in the transcript of the Jan. 12 meeting.
