(May 11, 2005) — On April 21, 120 students from Dianna Jaynes, Nick Doom and Ira Wests’ history classes had the opportunity to take a look into the environment of Japanese internment camps. Jaynes holds the trip during lessons of Japanese internment because “[the trip] would bring to life the things we had been talking about and studying about in class.” Students arrived at the Japanese American National Museum in two groups due to the limited space available. Groups went through different exhibits filled with various artifacts from the camps- ranging from articles with diagrams explaining how to tell Japanese from Chinese people to a miniature model of a campground. Students even got to see one of the actual barracks in its original condition, which was relocated into a room in the museum from out-of-state. Tour guides were either survivors or decedents of survivors from the camp, which allowed students to hear from a primary source of the event. First, students were taken to a library full of Japanese diaries, history and artifacts; the library also had a silent room where Japanese immigrants could tell their story and have it written into record. Guides explained how a growing anti-Japanese sentiment during World War II, at its climax had led to the authorization of internment camps. Through executive order 9066 all people of Japanese decent were ordered to leave their homes within 24 hours, taking only what they could carry and move into relocation camps. According to the Japanese American National Museum website, the museum was built in order to “better guard against the prejudice that threatens liberty and equality in a democratic society.” The U.S. government made reparations through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which acknowledges the injustice of the evacuation and gave $20,000 in reparations and a formal letter of apology to each interned citizen still living.