Bob and Sarah Fisher were checking their daughter’s homework last week when a social studies assignment caught their attention – it criticized the United States for dropping the atomic bomb during World War Two.
“Both of our grandfathers were in World War Two and this worksheet makes it seem as if they were the bad guys,” Fisher told Fox News.
The Fishers have a daughter in eighth grade at Victory Junior High School in New York. They said the anti-American slant in the homework assignment was shocking.
“As if somehow the Japanese were the victims and that the United States had no right to do what they did,” Fisher said. “It totally takes away from the sacrifices made by their generation and we won’t stand by and not say something about it.”
The “Why Did the U.S. Drop the Bomb?” homework assignment was created by EdHelper.com.
“But even now, people are still dying from the effects of the atomic bomb,” the worksheet states. “The effects were so awful it is necessary to ask the question, ‘Why did the US drop the bomb when the war was nearly over?’”
The students were then given four “possible” reasons why the United States dropped the bomb including the idea that “Americans believed Japan would never surrender.”
The worksheet also suggested the U.S. bombed Hiroshima because ‘the bomb cost a lot of money to develop and the U.S. wanted to use it. It would have been difficult to justify not using it after such a vast financial investment.”
Students were instructed to write an argument against the Hiroshima attack “which you hope will stop the bombing.”
Neither the principal at Victor Junior High School nor the superintendent returned numerous calls seeking comment.
One of the reasons the Fishers were so shocked is that they have been relatively pleased with the education their daughter has received at the school.
“We check homework regularly and have always been happy that history has been taught truthfully,” Fisher said. “We have never seen homework that has been twisted or put a leftist spin on history before, which is why we were shocked by this one.”
They said they’ve seen reports about liberal bias in public schools and they fear it may be creeping into their community.
“We do think that many public schools lean left – that they take history and put a liberal twist on it,” Fisher said. “By not saying anything, it just makes it easier for them to slowly erode our educational system and change the true history of our country.”
But the couple was especially proud of their daughter, Amanda.
“The funny thing is that our daughter thought it was wrong before we even said anything to her about it,” she said. “She said that she couldn’t argue against it because the United States had a right to drop the bomb in retaliation.”