Summary:
This lesson will focus on the promotion of developing historical empathy among students with personalities or situations that may have existed during the Second World War. Students will participate in a historical role-playing activity. They will play the parts of antagonists that meet each other on a battlefield and instead of killing each other, they learn a little about their shared commonalities. Students will gain an insight into the lives and formative experiences of a generation of people that they may not know much about.

Vital Theme and Narrative:
Values, beliefs, political ideas and institutions.

Habit of Mind:
Perceive past events and issues as they were experienced by people at the time, to develop historical empathy as opposed to present mindedness

Objectives:

• Student will participate in a role-playing activity that involves assuming the personality of a fictional and/or non?fictional historical figure.
• Student will write a one to three paragraph personal response to the role-playing activity. Student will provide impressions and observations that they experienced during the activity.

Procedures:

1. I will introduce students to E.B. Sledge's book With the Old Breed. I will utilize a role playing activity to promote student interest and to ftirther student empathy with the book's main characters. I will allow two student volunteers to portray the activity's characters. One student will play the part of an American soldier and the other student will play the part of a wounded Japanese soldier. I will explain the background of the war and of the scene that students will witness.
2. The students/actors will enact a dialogue that I have prepared for them. This activity will personalize the experience of combatants on both sides and directly involve students in the learning and information process. All students will write a response that details their impressions of the scene witnessed. The role playing activity along with written response will take approximately 15 minutes to execute.

Sources:
E.B. Sledge. With the Old Breed.

Ideas for Assessment of Student Learning:
Students will write a one to three paragraph response to the role-playing activity. Students will articulate their impressions and/or feelings in relation to the roleplaying activity. Students will be asked to put themselves in the place of one of the participants in the historical role-playing activity and communicate their observations of what it would be like to be that historical person. I will measure student comprehension and the success of the attempt to promote historical empathy through the written responses.

Student Response
You will write a one to three paragraph response to the role-playing activity. You will articulate your impressions and/or feelings in relation to the role-playing activity. You will be asked to put yourself in the place of one of the participants in the historical role-playing activity and communicate your observations of what it would be like to be that historical person. You have approximately ten minutes to write your response.

Role Playing Activity

A Conversation With The Enemy
By Eric S. Wagner

Historical Background: The Second World War began for the United States when the Japanese Empire launched a surprise attack on the U.S. Naval Station at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Within days the United States had officially declared war on Japan. The majority of Americans at the time saw this attack by Japan as cowardly and totally unprovoked. The Japanese had a different point of view and felt justified in their assault across the Pacific. US/Japanese relations had been strained for sometime and for several reasons. The Japanese government realized that their nation did not possess the necessary raw materials to supply Japanese industries with the resources they needed to compete globally. The Japanese government, especially, the Japanese military had decided to follow a policy of expansion whereever the opportunity presented itself in Asia. The Japanese saw this as the same method used by Europeans earlier to secure resources and colonies. The Japanese resented and saw as hypocritical European and US demands to halt their expansionist policies in the same areas already claimed by other imperialist powers. The US had several key possessions in Asia and throughout the Pacific. The US administered territories such as the Philippines, Guam, Midway and the Hawaii Islands. These possessions were the result of US expansionist policies at the turn of the century and before. The Japanese entrance into the Axis alliance with Germany and Italy dismayed many American political and military officials. They came to see Japan and that nation's policies as a direct threat the US interests in the Pacific. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to US entry into the most destructive war that mankind has ever known.

Characters:

• American soldier
• Japanese soldier (wounded)

Scene: The battle for the island of Okinawa is under way and thousands of men on both sides are dying in a fierce struggle. A young American soldier finds a wounded Japanese soldier propped up against a tree. The view is one of horror there are dead bodies scattered across the ground, thick smoke, the smell of burned flesh and gunfire can be heard.

(The American walks up and sees a wounded Japanese soldier propped against a tree.)

American soldier: Hey, Jap! Don't even try to move or I will blow your head off.

Japanese soldier: Don't shoot! I can't move. I was shot in the stomach and I do not think I am going to last very long.

American soldier: You speak English?

Japanese soldier: Yes, I studied English at the university, but that was before the war. I was going to get a job as a translator for a big company.

American soldier: Are you in a lot of pain?

Japanese soldier: Yes; I will die soon, but I have done my duty for the emperor.

American soldier: Forget about the emperor, he is not worth dying for. I would not give my life for a king.

Japanese soldier: He is not just a king; he is a living god to our people. We are happy to die in his service.

American soldier: I just want to go home. Hey, are you still here?

(The American shakes the Japanese soldier, but the Japanese soldier is dead.)