New Mexico high school champs advance to National History Day national contest

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — How much do you know about history? If you think you know a lot, there’s a group of New Mexico students who have proven they can challenge you.

A group of four sophomores at Albuquerque School of Excellence recently won a state title in the National History Day competition. The competition involves historical research and making a documentary on a topic. Their topic is a secret biological and chemical warfare research unit that was secretly operating in Japan during World War II.

“I feel like that’s really important to us, not just having a competitive topic, but also having a topic that’s really serious and that we can bring light to to other people that aren’t commonly educated on it,” said Smriti Monger, a team member.

Their documentary, “The Hidden Atrocities of Unit 731: Denial, Duty, and the Right to Justice“, bested 11 other documentaries to place first in the Senior Documentary competition at New Mexico National History Day. Their hard work earned them the state title and a trip to nationals.

“It wasn’t easy making the documentary. Everyday for three months, all four of us spent 5-10 hours daily researching Unit 731, sourcing videos and photos, writing the film script, recording the narration and editing the film. To better understand the complexities of Unit 731, we combed through thousands of pages of archived journals, books, and other primary source materials; attempted to translate material that wasn’t in English; and even submitted Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the U.S. government for previously undisclosed information,” said Nicole Briceno Gabauer, a team member.

Monger, Gabauer, Tam Pham and Masara Algburi will fly out Sunday to the University of Maryland. They will go up against around 100 other documentaries in the national contest.