Jump to page content
Small text Medium text Large text For teachers Glossaire Site map Home
Text size Text and printable version
WWII: An Overview in Moving PicturesWWII: An Overview in Moving PicturesMany Voices, Many StoriesMany Voices, Many StoriesThe Home FrontThe Home FrontCritical PerspectivesCritical PerspectivesSee Everything, Hear EverythingSee Everything, Hear Everything
Home > For teachers > Lesson plan
For teachers
Lesson plan for the film
Unwanted Soldiers

Overall Objective
This film looks at how Canada’s enlistment policies discriminated against Chinese Canadians during the Second World War and how this discrimination represented a broader pattern of racism prevalent at the time. The learning activities involve making drawings inspired by the film and writing in a fictional journal.

Grade level
Advanced 9–12 and beyond. This unit can be adapted to younger grades and different courses of study in various Canadian provinces and territories.

Content Areas
History
Citizenship
Political Science
Human Rights
Social Studies

Materials Required
Blackboard, white board or flip chart and markers
Laptop and projector
Computer lab

Summary
Unwanted Soldiers by Jeri Osborne is a sensitive, sobering look at the discriminatory relationship between the Canadian Government and Chinese Canadians during WWII. This documentary chronicles stories of a group of men who fought to be recognized as Canadian citizens and reveals federal policies that limited Chinese Canadians’ human rights. Though originally banned from enlisting in the military, Chinese Canadians were finally deployed as Special Forces agents for dangerous espionage work in Southeast Asia.

Access all lesson plans »»

Site section related to this lesson plan
Accueil
Printable documents
Download the Word version of this lesson plan »»
Download the PDF version of this lesson plan »»
Excerpt or film related to this lesson plan
Unwanted Soldiers
HelpPreferencesLarge size
CloseClos and go back to the player
 

Help

 

Internet connection

Each film on this site is available for viewing at low speed or high speed.

  • Low speed: recommended if your Internet connection uses a dial-up modem (56 kbps or slower). Low-speed viewing results in lower quality image and sound.
  • High speed: recommended if you have high-speed Internet (DSL, cable modem) or are connected to an institutional network. Viewing in high-speed mode may cause occasional jerky images and sound interruptions if the speed of your connection is not fast enough.

If you're not sure which speed to use for viewing the films, try high speed first. If the results are not satisfactory, switch to low speed.

 

Format

Films can be available for viewing in either Macromedia Flash or QuickTime. Image and sound quality are similar for all these formats.

  • Flash: lets you view the film directly in the Web page without launching an external application. Requires the Flash plug-in (download for free at Macromedia Flash Player).
  • QuickTime (alternative format): requires QuickTime, version 7 or more recent (download for free at QuickTime).
 

Closed captions (CC)

Translation of the audio portion of a film into subtitles, for example, dialogue, narration, sound effects, etc. These captions let hearing-impaired viewers read what they cannot hear. Closed captions are available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With closed captions (under Accessibility).

 

Described video (DV)

A narrated description of a film's key visual elements to enable the vision-impaired to form a mental picture of what is happening on screen. Described video is available for a few films. To access them, you must select QuickTime (under Format) and With described video (under Accessibility).

Film  (48:48)
Film related to this lesson plan
Unwanted Soldiers
1999
Film  (48:48)
Excerpt related to this lesson plan
Unwanted Soldiers
[1999]
Excerpt  (5:30)