I really love this analysis of how letter writing was a coping strategy for some soldiers. I never thought about it this way but it is so true.

I don't really have any feedback to give on her writing. I appreciated the analysis of the PechaKucha presentation technique, and I feel the same way about it!

I'd like to comment on this. I would disagree with what you said about today's relationships relying on face to face interaction. I think that connections forming through letters is very similar to how connections can form through social media and texting today. However, I would agree with the picture part. It's amazing how the woman was able to fall fully in love with the man without knowing what he looked like. That is something I cannot imagine happening in today's world.

I liked your analysis, but I would say your summary of the story was a little dragged on. Maybe you could have focused more on specific parts of the story to write about rather than writing a synopsis of the whole thing.

I think you could go more into detail about the two themes you noticed: maybe talk about how the two themes are contradictory and opposing, and talk about examples of letters that follow the different themes. I do like how you fleshed out two cores of the Holocaust letters, and I think that many, if not most, of these letters do fit into them.

I have never thought about published letters from this perspective. What would the authors of the letters think about their letters being published, read by the public, and used in schools? Very insightful.

I appreciate how analytical of the letters this writing is, especially the specific breakdown of Louise Ogawa's letters. I would say maybe separate the writing into paragraphs to make it easier to realize when the topic switches. :)

I think you could go more in depth on how the students balanced school, sports, and military training.

This is an insightful way to look at reading letters from WW2. Politics and battles are such a superficial way of looking at this time period if you don't examine the lives and emotions of regular people.

Highlighting the humanity of people held hostage during the Holocaust is one of the most important parts of telling their stories. I love this topic!

I never put much thought into the fact that not all the Jews in concentration camps were German, so I think that's an important idea to expand on.

I feel like a lot of what we talk about when learning about WW2 is focused on politics and battles, but there is obviously a huge social and emotional component to how the war affected people, whether they were in combat or at home. I think this could be a really interesting topic to research.

Could they voluntarily come to the camps?

Was there a difference between labor camps and concentration camps?

What were concentration camps like? I know they were essentially death camps, but Bodenheimer makes it sound more like the Japanese internment camps, saying he had French and English lessons.

I was not aware that the Jews that were taken to concentration camps were notified well in advance. I thought it was more like the Nazis raided homes and forcefully took them away. (I think it still was like that later on, but apparently it did not start out that way.)

Ms. Breed was sort of like a rock for the children and a way for them to stay connected to their home.

Japanese children were faced with very obvious and forward hate about their country. It seems to be something that was very normalized, even in a school setting.

were the people being held in the camps able to receive packages?

another example of Ms. Breed's children writing with a "glass half full" outlook

families were split up

Louise would paint her situation out to be not so bad when writing to Ms. Breed, probably so as not to worry her too much.

they were conditioned to hate japenese people because of the war

this is my aha moment

I get letters from my friends and family when I am at camp, and it allows me to reflect on those experiences when I go back and read those letters.