“Voices from Japan:” 3.11 through Tanka Poetry

The project Voices from Japan: Perspectives on Disaster and Hope captured the extraordinary responses of Japanese individuals to Japan’s  3.11 Triple Tragedy through a time-honored Japanese form of expression—tanka poetry.  Kathleen Krauth, history teacher at the American School in Japan, talks about the development of this poetry collection and offers strategies for using these vivid, beautiful poems to teach about Japan, 3.11, and human responses to disaster in social studies and literature classes. Kathy demonstrates how she involved her students with the poetry and offers multiple teaching ideas, along with a selection of the tanka poems.