pre-reading to Aleutian Sparrow

I am really in awe that I was never taught this while in school. I have always heard that the government keeps things secret, but I never truly saw this until I read the websites that were posted. I am taken-aback by this motive. I understand that the government wanted to help out, but couldn't they have done a little better? These poor Aleuts lived in hell. Separated from everything they knew, owned, and loved and immedieatly relocated is a nightmare. I cannot even begin to understand how they felt. One of my favorite websites was a link off of the Aleutian World War II National Historic Area site. I really enjoyed reading the "kids page." Issues such as this are hard for smaller kids to grasp and understand. This website could really help children. In fact, I learned so much from reading Harriet's Story. By reading this, you can understand where a child is coming from. She had no idea what was happening, but saw the way her mother and sister, Gretchen, were effected. It broke my heart to hear what Harriet's mother did to help others. She was a very strong woman, very selfless. I also think another wonderful site is Aleut TV. I would really like to see this documentary. I feel like this site had wonderful resources, such as photographs/archives of many historical documents. This is such a good resource for me to use in my classroom. I would love to be able to use clips from a video to teach my students just exactly what the Aleuts experienced. I feel like there is a lot more I can learn about this topic. I would love to see this become something taught in mainstream education. To me, it relates so closely to what the Jews experienced from Hitler. Appalling and stunning to see this in the US.
-jeana