UC to honor Japanese-American WWII internees

— The University of California's governing board voted Thursday to grant honorary degrees to hundreds of Japanese-Americans whose studies at UC were cut short when they were sent to internment camps during World War II.

The UC Board of Regents unanimously approved a one-time suspension of UC's 37-year moratorium on honorary degrees to recognize the estimated 700 former students of Japanese descent who were forced to leave the university in 1942.

"This action is long overdue and addresses a historical tragedy," UC President Mark Yudof said, noting that he hoped the degrees would provide "a small measure of justice" to the former students and their families.

UC is the latest university to award honorary degrees to former Japanese American WWII internees. The University of Washington, University of Oregon and Oregon State University granted such degrees to former students last year.

Aiko "Grace" Obata Amemiya was enrolled in a nursing program at UCSF when she was sent to the Gila River internment camp in Arizona. She later worked as a nurse in Iowa, but never received her UC degree.

"Today's vote for honorary degrees fills my heart with joy," said Amemiya, 88, who grew up in Vacaville, Calif. "I'm glad the university is recognizing that what the government did was wrong, and now my classmates and I can finally take our place as full-fledged UC alumni."

UC officials have not decided when or where the honorary degrees will be awarded.


Many of those students have already passed away, but the university plans to grant degrees posthumously.

In the spring after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, more than 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were sent to "war relocation camps" in California and other Western states under an executive order signed by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Taye Oda said she only needed six units to graduate from UC Berkeley when she was sent to an internment camp in Utah. She eventually completed earned those units and received her degree in 1992.

"Even 67 years later, I can still remember my agony and despair as we were sent to exile in Topaz, Utah for four years," Oda told the regents.

UC stopped granting honorary degrees in 1972 because the process of awarding them had become too politically charged. But officials said the former internees' unique and tragic circumstances justified the special degrees.

"This is a truly exceptional case where students were exiled from the university based on racial prejudice," said Bill Kidder, a UC Riverside administrator who helped develop the proposal. "It's appropriate to honor these students in this way."