Japanese-American Internees Will Receive Honorary Degrees

 

I read with great anticipation a recent article by the Fresno Bee on the efforts by the California State University Board of Trustees to award honorary degrees to countless young men and women who were forced to abandon their studies due to World War II.  The main question is how many candidates the school system will find.  Many of these former students of the CSU and UC systems had to abandon school because of the interment camps they were sent to.  After the war was over, many of them could not afford to continue going to school.  In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order allowing the military to round up Japanese-Americans on the West Coast and imprison them in camps that included barbed wire and armed guards.  After Pearl Harbor was bombed by the Japanese, the US citizens of Japanese descent were rounded up and sent to interment camps as found in this book, titled, "California Blossoms and Harvest Delights" (http://bestsellerpicks.blogspot.com).  UC and CSU plans go hand in hand with the recent efforts to award diplomas to Japanese-Americans removed from high school. 

 

Honorary Degress:  Former CSU students whose studies were interrupted by World War II Internment (or their families) can call 562-951-4723 or e-mail Nisei@calstate.edu

 

Local history buff, Bill Secrest Jr. is the contact for Fresno State.  He can be reached at 559-488-6720

 

Former University of California students or their families can email HonoraryDegree@ucop.edu or call 510-987-0239.

 

It is time to redress the wrong we committed against these very gentle people.  Let us say never again should any group be treated the way Japanese Americans were treated during WWII.