'Tis the season to be jolly -- but also perhaps to reflect upon man's inhumanity to man.

On Dec. 7 the CBS news program "60 Minutes" profiled Japanese-Americans, now senior citizens, who had spent the pivotal years of their childhood in the internment camps that the U.S. government had devised for Japanese-Americans during World War II. Their stories were sobering, to say the least.

And now -- as a sort of companion piece to the CBS news story -- the musical A Jive Bomber's Christmas has returned to Los Angeles for a fourth season of performances, with the original cast members back in place.

The musical, written and directed by Saachiko and Dom Magwili, has been hailed as both a hard-hitting "history lesson" and a "good-natured" holiday entertainment, according to a Dec. 9 review in the LA Times. The lighter moments come by way of a talent show arranged by a young woman in the camp to boost the morale of her fellow prisoners.

The play's title, by the way, is the nickname of one of the characters. A Jive Bomber's Christmas is being performed at several different churches in L.A. through Dec. 21. For exact locations and ticket information, call (310) 217-1643.

-- By Rebecca Paller