This article introduces the historical thinking concept of Historical Perspective as a framework for supporting Grade 10 Canadian history students in understanding the Japanese Canadian Internment of the Second World War era. The article is grounded in the research of Seixas and Morton (2013) and Seixas and Peck (2004), the resource guides students to analyze how identity, citizenship, and heritage were experienced and contested by different groups between 1929 and 1945. The TAIKEN Series, a collection of oral video testimonies produced by the Nkkei National Museum and Cultural Centre, serves as the central primary source students will explore, offering first-hand survivor accounts that bring the human dimensions of internment into focus for students. A detailed graphic organizer structures students’ progression from observation to interpretation to critical questioning, supporting them in moving beyond presentism towards nuanced, evidence-based historical thinking and reasoning. The resource also includes a teacher-facing curricular note, a modelled historical thinking walkthrough, and a scholarly rationale for its pedagogical design. Together, these elements position students as active historical investigators who must engage deeply with primary sources and the lived experiences of those in the past.
