Sentence:  When Peter B. Kyne ( Pride of Palomar , 43 ) informed us in 1921 that we had an instinctive dislike for the Japanese , did the heated <WSD>debates</WSD> of the Californians settle the truth or falsity of the proposition ? 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a discussion in which reasons are advanced for and against some proposition or proposal