Search Engines
Search engines, like Google and Bing, give you access to everything that is on the web--the good, the bad, and the ugly. If you want to narrow your search results to resources that are generally more reliable, use the advanced search feature for the search engine. Using the advanced search feature, you can generally designate which types of websites you want to limit your search to by specifying the domain(s) (website extensions) you'd like to search. For example, the domains of .gov or .edu.
Google Advanced Search - Information on educational and governmental websites tend to have more reliable information.
In the advance search, along with your search terms, enter .edu or .gov in the box labeled "Search within a site or domain:".
Evaluating Websites
The quality of the information you find on the Web varies tremendously so it is always a good idea to check the information against another source. As with all information resources, whether in print or on the Internet, you evaluate its quality based on the following criteria:
- Accuracy (Is it free from mistakes and errors?)
- Authority (What are the qualifications of the author?)
- Objectivity (Is there any strong bias?)
- Currency (Is the information up to date?)
- Coverage (To what extent is the topic explored?)
That's just the basics. Learn more!
Tutorials on Evaluation Criteria
CRAAP Test (CSU Chico)
Web Resources
Amache, Colorado: The Granada Relocation Center Site
Asian American Comparative Collection: The Kooskia Internment Camp Project - "...An obscure and virtually-forgotten World War II detention facility that was located in a remote area of north-central Idaho, 30 miles from the town of Kooskia, near the hamlet of Lowell. One of a number of such camps throughout the United States, it was administered by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and held people of Japanese ancestry who were termed "enemy aliens," even though most of them were long-time U.S. residents, denied naturalization by racist U.S. laws".
Confinement and Ethnicity: An Overview of World War II Japanese American Relocation Sites - Tells the story of the forced evacuations of nearly 120,000 Japanese-American citizens following Pearl Harbor and each of the War Relocation Authority internment camps to which they were sent.
Conscience and the Constitution - "delves into the heart of the Japanese American conscience and a controversy that continues today. Experience the choice faced by any group when confronted by mass injustice -- whether to comply or to resist"
Japanese American National Museum - located at 369 East First Street in Los Angeles, CA. The Japanese American National Museum is the first museum in the United States dedicated to sharing the experience of Americans of Japanese ancestry. Through building a comprehensive collection of Japanese American objects, images and documents and through a multi-faceted program of exhibitions, educational programs, films and publications, the Museum tells the story of Japanese Americans around the country to a national and international audience.
Japanese American Network (JA*Net) "is a partnership of Japanese American organizations based in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles. A goal of this partnership is to encourage the use of the Internet and interactive communications technologies to exchange information about Japanese Americans -- art, culture, community, history, news, events, social services, and public policy issues. The website is a volunteer project and depends on community participation and contributions."
Japanese American Relocation Digital Archive (JARDA) - over "10,000 digital images [which] have been created [and which are] complimented by 20,000 pages of electronic transcriptions of document and oral histories." 200+ photographs from the Los Angeles Examiner "...documents the relocation of Japanese Americans in California principally during the period 1941-1946. Many of the photographs show daily life in the camps."
The Japanese American Exhibit and Access Project is a multifaceted project to create a permanent Web site which provides enhanced access to the University of Washington Libraries holdings on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Included in the project is a virtual exhibit focusing on the Puyallup assembly center, Camp Harmony, and enhanced access to archival guides and inventories of the UW Libraries Manuscripts and University Archives Division.
Manzanar National Historic Site - The Manzanar National Historic Site Interpretive Center Opened on April 24, 2004 and includes 8,000 square feet of exhibits, a bookstore, and theaters which show the site's award-winning 22-minute film "Remembering Manzanar" every half hour. Click through the main links of Home, Information, Visiting, History, Natural History, Volunteering, and Education to find many more information filled links along the left side of the pages.
A More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the U.S. Constitution - "this exhibit explores this period when racial prejudice and fear upset the delicate balance between the rights of the citizen and the power of the state" with the relocation of Japanese Americans to camps during World War II
San Francisco News for the first six months of 1942, carried almost daily reports of FBI and police sweeps of the Japanese American communities, and the various proclamations, plans - and restriction of their civil liberties - issued by Lieutenant-General John L. DeWitt at the Presidio. When reading these articles it must be understood that they reflect their time; words and ideas repugnant and appalling to us today are used, and discussed, freely, in the News' columns. (Museum of the City of San Francisco)
Suffering Under a Great Injustice - Ansel Adams's Photographs of Japanese American Internment at Manzanar - 209 photographic prints and his book Born Free and Equal, and more
War Relocation Authority Camps in Arizona, 1942-1946 - This Exhibit features images from approximately forty photographs taken for the War Relocation Authority and vividly depicts life in Arizona's two camps, Poston and Gila.
The War Relocation Centers of World War II: When Fear Was Stronger than Justice - "Teaching with Historic Places Lesson Plans," includes maps, readings, photographs and layouts of the Manzanar and Rowher camps, activities, and links to related Web sites. From the U.S. National Park Service.
