The year is 1944 and the place is a high school in Anytown, USA. An American History teacher enters a room of noisy students. She is nervous because it is her first day of work, so she decides to ask the class for their opinions on American current events, thinking that this will get them talking and save her from having to talk too much.

Madeline: Hello, students. My name is Mrs. Serum and today we're going to be talking about some current events here in America. Does everyone know what's going on right now with the Japanese Internment?

Class: (ad lib) No, not really, etc.

Madeline: Well, since we are still at war with Japan, many Americans are suspicious of the Japanese - even the ones living in the United States. The President has ordered that all the Japanese-Americans be sent off to special camps until the end of the war. How do you all feel about this?

Jake: They deserve to be put in camps! They're probably all spies!

Wolf: Yeah, I agree. The Japanese should definitely be separated from the rest of us...at least until the end of the war.

James: Why? They're Americans just like us. Who cares if their ancestors came from a country that we're currently fighting? The people we're putting in camps are Americans! They live here, not in Japan. Just because someone's parents or grandparents are Japanese, doesn't make them a spy!

Madeline: That's a very good point, James.

Jake: No, it's not! If the President thinks they're spies, then they probably are!

Monica: You don't even know what you're talking about, Jake. The President of the United States is a human being; he makes mistakes just like anyone else. I think it's wrong to make Japanese-Americans leave their homes until the end of the war. Isn't sending Japanese-Americans off to camps just the same as the Nazis sending Jews off to camps?

Mary: No, not exactly, because we're not sending people off to camps in order to kill them like the Nazis are. We're only sending them away just to be on the safe side; to make sure that none of them can leak information to their home country.

Nonica: But America is their home country; not Japan.

Mary: You know what I meant.

James: Well, I still don't think it's right. What if we went to war one days with whatever country your ancestors are from, Mary? How would you like it if your family had to leave home and move into some uncomfortable camp for several months?

Mary: I guess I wouldn't like that at all...

Jake: Oh, who cares? You'd just have to get over it! We have to do whatever it takes to keep our country safe. Besides, those dirty Japs mean trouble! I don't care if they have to stay in those camps even after the war is over! They certainly don't deserve to be here or call themselves Americans anymore...not after what they did to Pearl Harbor!

Nonica: But the people being sent to the camps aren't the same people who bombed Pearl Harbor! The people being sent to camps are innocent civilians...they weren't anywhere near Japan when Japan decided to bomb the U.S.. It was a surprise attack, anyway - no one even knew it was going to happen except for the Japanese military.

Jake: Well, whatever. I still don't trust them.

Monica: You're just afraid of anyone or anything different from you, Jake.

Jake: No way.

Madeline: Ok, class. Let's settle down. I hate to end such an interesting discussion, but we should probably get at least a little bit of work done in our books before the bell rings.

Class (obviously not wanting to work): (ad lib) Aw man, do we have to, etc.

Madeline: Yes, you have to. Now please turn to page 57...

(Class starts flipping to the page in their books)

Scene.