Lessons from WWII shared in classroom

Front row, from left, Melanie Diaz, Theresa Kagan, Adrianna Mendez, Diane Class, Britney Ramos, Emily Beck, David Cohen, Mrs. Terry Masatani and Noah Cook. Submitted.

Victor Baker of the Cultural House in Seabrook and Terri Masatani spoke to the students about their experiences related to the internment of Japanese people during World War II in Terry Kuhnreich's Search for Conscience class at Vineland High School.

Masatani was born in Japan, but she and her family moved to Peru for better financial opportunities. In 1941 after the attack of Pearl Harbor, her family was sent from Peru to a Japanese internment camp in Texas. Masatani was just 3 years old at the time. Her family lost everything they owned in the move and lived at the camp for more than two years.

Baker spoke to the students about the employment opportunities that Charles F. Seabrook of Seabrook Farms, near Bridgeton, gave to people who had been in a similar situation as Masatani.

During the war, Seabrook Farms began recruiting interned Japanese Americans to southern New Jersey because many of its employees were serving in the armed forces.

Within a year, nearly 1,000 workers had relocated to Seabrook from internment camps throughout the South and Southwest, and the total number of Japanese Americans resettled there reached close to 3,000 thousand at one point.