World War II New Guinea Campaign

Although the big picture for this lesson on the New Guidea Campaign of WWII is taking a field trip to the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, you can easily use it as a guide to an independent or group research project as well. However, if you can make it to the memorial this will be a much more powerful assignment. You'll find some brief background information to introduce scholars to this campaign before they do their own research. First, learners locate New Guinea on a map and draw conclusions about the geographical implications. Next, they research the event itself and explain its importance to the Japanese and the Allies. Consider making this prompt a bit more creative to encourage critical thinking.