The diary entries provide a great opportunity for a cross curricular unit- English and History.
While students learn about World War 2, the diary entries give an authentic voice to the people and their experience that will be engaging for students.

Here are some Lang Arts standards that could be used for this unit.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6
Determine an author's point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness or beauty of the text.
edited by ybanuelos on 10/25/2014

Professor Yamashita provided us with some amazing diaries that provide us with a treasure trove of material that can be used in class. In particular, I like the Nakane diary of June 17, 1945. In it, this young lady describes her teachings in war and battle. In U.S. History, the debate over to drop the Atomic Bomb is one of the main standards for WWII. One of the arguments for dropping he bomb is the amount of deaths that would occur if the Allies invaded mainland Japan. Historians have used the Battle of Okinawa as an example of the resistance that would be put up by the Japanese Civilians. This young girl's account helps show why the decision was made to drop the bomb. If you can find an example from the Takahashi (the housewife) diary that shows how the Japanese civilians were fed up and ready to surrender, this would provide you with examples of both sides.

Mulan: Five Versions of a Classic Chinese Legend, with Related Texts
edited by Shiamin Kwa, Wilt L. Idema

http://books.google.com/books?id=fHzXt8AHyhIC&pg=PR26&lpg=PR26&dq=Qiu+Jin+and+mulan&source=bl&ots=Em4urhhD6v&sig=m9QWs654AOGSQZHJktiQ7witgAo&hl=en&sa=X&ei=AyRMVMT4FIn4igKbxYGoDA&ved=0CCUQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Qiu%20Jin%20and%20mulan&f=false

This looks like a great resource for a unit on Qiu Jin and Mulan, with a gender studies/ feminism perspective.

The first words that come to mind when I hear the word kamikaze is fanatical, crazed, willing warriors who would gladly sacrifice themselves by crashing their planes into ships. After watching "Wings of Defeat", I learned that this wasn't true for the pilots. Many of the pilots were sad and depressed that they had to go and sacrifice themselves for their country. One pilot stated, "To some it might seem bold and courageous, but to us it was very grim and painful." He described the photo taken as his funeral portrait that had "the shadow of death all over it". Yet they followed the order out of a sense of responsibility to their country. All of the pilots tend to say the same thing about their experiences which is that they never talked about it with anyone. It wasn't something that one boasted about to others and especially not to family. they were supposed to show their loyalty and happiness on the outside, but many of them were dying on the inside thinking that "I might be next". one pilot blames the Emperor for the deaths of the kamikaze pilots. If only the emperor had ended the war six months earlier. He described it as, "They treated our lives as waste paper." I failed to think of these men as human beings probably because of the preconceived ideas I have about kamikaze pilots. Where id those ideas come from? Textbooks? Lectures in U.S. History? I don't exactly remember, but I do not want to give my students a one sided view of history. We need to give them as many perspectives as possible and teach them that their may be bias in every single one. We need to teach them about motive and tone so that they can figure out how reliable the sources are. It is so important to make sure that they are not improperly influenced to think only one way, our way.

After our discussion of the Japanese pilot's biography, I couldn't shake the notion that kamikaze pilots may not have been as enthused at the idea of commiting suicide for the sake of Japan as I had always believed they were. Was it, then, a myth? Were kamikaze pilots not WWII's samurais? Although I will certainly be looking forward to viewing the documentary, "Wings of Defeat," I also read over an article that I found, one that shares an interview with a kamikaze pilot who had survived: http://www.historynet.com/a-kamikaze-who-lived-to-tell-the-tale.htm. Interestingly, the former pilot strips away the myth and says that many of the pilots, when they had heard of the mission, thought it ridiculous. In fact, he went on to say that only after the pilots had thought about it overnight--thinking of the shame and ostracization they may be bringing upon their families--that they had finally accepted.

I really enjoyed the look at biographies from a different perspective. In fifth grade, we have biographies and diaries in both our reading anthologies and social studies. In fifth grade we study the revolutionary war and children's experiences during this time, including Tories vs Patriots . I will use the Nine year old's diary and compare their feelings and experiences during this time of conflict. During the lecture, the pictures and the words gave me a an overwhelming sense of sadness as I know people's diaries today are being written around the world describing the horrors of war.and occupation. We have learned nothing. Sigh...

One of the GATE icons is "Multiple Perspectives," an opportunity for students to observe content through many lenses. As is made clear through the pilot's and the child's biography, perspectives on Japan's efforts during the war were not necessarily organic. From what we learned about the Japanese pilots, they looked forward to being with their brothers of war; however, this diary was written with the understanding that it would be read by the pilots' superiors. Also, through reading the child's biography, we see through adult eyes the militarizing of the children at even such early ages. For any such lesson, observing content though many lenses is highly beneficial for our students as they begin to formulate their own opinions about the worlds they live in.