The setback in Congressional efforts to pass a compromise immigration reform bill came with what might be called an unintended consequence.

Tucked into the bill was a provision calling for a commission to study how certain German-Americans, Italian-Americans and others were treated after the outbreak of World War II.

A related commission would study how this country treated Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, a shameful story from almost any perspective.

Hawai'i should have particular sympathy for these efforts. While the story of the wartime internment of Japanese in Hawai'i is a far more positive one than the one experienced by Mainland Japanese, we have our own share of families broken apart, lives disrupted and careers lost to war hysteria.

This country rightly acknowledged the injustice done to Japanese in 1988.

It is only appropriate that the same historical review be applied to other groups. No one would argue that there was wholesale action against German-Americans or Italian-Americans on the scale experienced by the Japanese.

But at any level, historical wrongs need to be righted.

These study commissions, a modest first step in any event, should be approved with or without the immigration bill.