Internment Lesson Plan Is Under Attack

• A school program teaches that confining Japanese Americans was a mistake. Some want it to include the opinion that it was just.

More than six decades ago, this tranquil island in Puget Sound became roiled in conflict after hundreds of Japanese American residents were forced off the island into World War II internment camps. Neighbors argued, sometimes violently, over the rightness of targeting an entire population based on race.  The argument has surfaced here again, this time over a sixth-grade social studies program that teaches, among other things, that the internment of 110,000 to 120,000 Japanese Americans in the 1940s was a mistake.  A group of residents is demanding that the school board change the program so that it includes different opinions, including the view that the internment was justified. The group also wants to omit discussions that hint at parallels between the internment and the U.S. Patriot Act. Some members say they are prepared to pursue legal action, if necessary.  School officials would consider making "refinements" to the program, but "the basic tenor would remain the same," said Bruce Weiland, president of the Bainbridge Island School Board. The overall message would continue to be that "the internment was a mistake, that it was illegal and it was a tragedy." [more ]