Interior Secretary Kempthorne joined a 5th Grade class Tuesday on an Electronic Field Trip visit to Manzanar National Historic Site in California

The Murch Elementary School Mustangs joined an estimated 20 million viewers at schools and communities around the nation to learn about the Nisei, American born Japanese children, who played baseball in the Japanese American Internment Camps during World War II. Fifth grader Keeva says she learned a lot.

“Well I think it was really sad but I’m glad I learned and I hope it will never happen again.”

“Desert Diamonds Behind Barbed Wire” is an interactive presentation that in real time took kids on an educational hike together. The Electronic Field Trip allowed students to stand up in front of their classmates, real and virtual, and have their questions answered by National Park experts and former internees; who answered them live from the windswept desert floor where they were held.

This is the 5th National Park Electronic Field Trip created through a partnership between Ball State University and the National Park Foundation with assistance from the National Park Service and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ron Tull, Interior Department Radio News Service, Murch Elementary School, Washington D.C.