As thousands of students gather this week for the finals of the National History Day contest in the US state of Maryland, one research project may stand out – not only as a sobering reminder of an infamous, often forgotten Japanese military unit, but also for America’s role in keeping its war crimes quiet.
The project, a documentary produced by four students from a New Mexico high school, is an investigation of Unit 731 – a secret group that carried out unspeakable experiments on people in China and other parts of Asia during World War II.
The girls from Albuquerque School of Excellence, who advanced to the national contest after placing first at the state level, have joined about 3,000 students from across the country and US territories to showcase their months-long research results.
At one of the country’s top academic competitions – aimed at deepening understanding of the past and promoting critical thinking – their project not only revisits a dark corner of wartime history but also questions how that history is taught in US schools today.
Team member Tam Pham recalled that the idea for the project began in a college-prep seminar course, where students were expected to choose and research a topic. Her classmate Smriti Monger stumbled upon a webpage titled “Pacific Ocean Atrocities”.
