Research Guides: ASLC/HIST-477: The History and Memory of the Asia-Pacific War: Find Primary Sources

Primary Source Analysis Activity

Here are the prompts for the primary source analysis activity (with your small group).

As a group, spend some time examining your source and making sure you have a shared understanding of what it is you’re looking at. Then use the following prompts to analyze your source. Plan on sharing your thoughts and questions with the class.

Initial analysis:

What feelings did looking at this source evoke? Curiosity? Boredom? Confusion? Fascination? Something else entirely?
Who (likely) produced this item, and for what purpose? How would it have likely been used at the time of its production?
When was the item created?
What information could be drawn from the source?
Does the source show us someone’s perspective? Can you identify any ideologies, agendas, or assumptions that the source supports or challenges?

Collections about Civilian Internment Camps

Truman Library
Japanese-American Internment Camp Newspapers
Densho
Oral history interviews, photos, newspapers, and other primary sources that document the Japanese American experience from immigration through redress with a strong focus on the World War II mass incarceration.
Internment Camps in the Philippines - MacArthur Memorial Organization

Collections about Atomic Bombings

Collections about the Nanjing Massacre

USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Online
Once you have registered with the site, you can login to search for videos of survivors' testimonies.
Nanking Massacre Project
A digital collection of accounts and photographs taken by missionaries in Nanjing during the Japanese invasion and massacre.

Collections about Women's and Gendered Experiences

Collections about Service in the Military

Collections of Government Documents

Collections of Comics, Cartoons, and Posters

The Fighting Comic Books of the Second World War
Online exhibit of comic book covers during the war years in America.
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum
World War II Posters from the U.S. Goverment Printing Office
American War Posters from the Second World War
Posters from the Second Sino-Japanese War
Japanese Propaganda Posters
Propaganda posters produced by Japanese-sponsored governments in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War.