photo credit: crazyoctopus

“A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” … FDR’s words … available here on YouTube … provide a backdrop for what will probably be the most talked about subject in social studies classrooms on this day. I humbly submit two of the best resources I’ve encountered on the subject.

National Geogrpahic’s “Remembering Pearl Harbor” collection is a good collection of print, video and audio resources about the attack. The central feature of this site is the Attack Map, an easy-to-navigate collection of “Photos, footage, firsthand accounts, and narration bring the attack on Pearl Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, to life—moment by moment, target by target.”

Note: this resource seems to be DOWN – I know I’ve seen it before, I’ve used it, it’s amazing – what a shame! Upon reviewing the page source code, I was able to come close to getting the resource to load via this Flash file – which appears to be the intro, but nothing happens when I click. :(  Perhaps the assets were moved to another server. Come on, National Geographic! We expect – and the kids deserve – better than this!

The “Searchable Archive of Survivors’ Stories” appears to be down, unfortunately (and oddly), but the text listings in Pearl Harbor Ships and Planes, World War II Time Line, and More are accessible.

After the Day of Infamy: “Man-on-the-Street” Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor is a Library of Congress collection featuring “approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States.” I wonder what it would be like for students who live in the geographic areas included in the recordings project to relive them, perhaps even interact with families of those who participated. Audio files are presented in Real Audio format (which I personally loathe and refuse to install on any computer for any reason) as well as the more popular and accessible .MP3 and .WAV formats. These audio recordings are surreal – and would make an impressive soundtrack to a visual story presented with photos of the day, to explore and reflect on the attack, it’s aftermath, and the U.S.’s entrance into World War II.

-kj-