05.20.08

Doing the right thing: Japanese-Americans get honorary degrees

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:08 am by Administrator

On a warm, sunny day at the University of Washington May 18, a historical wrong was put right.
Several months after Japan bombed of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Excecutive Order 9066 which barred those of Japanese descent, most of them Ameican citizens, from living on the West Coast. More than 100,000 Japanese-Americans were put behind barbed wire in internment camps in desolate areas across the western United States.
At that time, about 450 Japanese- Americans were attending the University of Washington and they would be forced to discontinue their education there. The university was able to relocate about 58 students to other colleges and a few received diplomas in a makeshift ceremony at the Puyallup Fairgrounds where they were being held. But most never returned to the UW and to get a degree, until now.
About 70 of the students, now in their 80s, attended the ceremony at Kane Hall to receive their honorary degrees, in an unprecendented act by the university. They saw old friends they hadn’t seen in years and were cheered on by their families.
Former U.S. Congressman and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, who lived in an internment camp as a boy, gave the commencement address.
“It’s never too late to do the right thing,” Mineta said. “It’s never too late to rejoice that the right thing has finally been done. And it’s never too late to be grateful to those who do the right thing.”

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