(NAME-MCE) UO will bestow belated honors - The Japanese American students were forced to leave Oregon in 1942

[Anselmo Villanueva]

This article appeared on the front page of the local newspaper.  It included
pictures of 11 of the 20 students to be honored on Sunday -- the pictures
were from the UO yearbook from that year.  The newspaper also provided a
brief update on the lives of each of these students -- information that does
not appear in the article below downloaded from the newspaper's website.

Anselmo--------------

UO will bestow belated honors *The Japanese American students were forced to
leave Oregon in 1942*

By Jeff Wright  jwright at guardnet.com
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=88076&sid=1&fid=1

The Register-Guard  Eugene OR

Published: April 4, 2008 12:00AM
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 [image: Story photo and/or graphic]

They look earnest, they look hopeful, they look young.

They are students at the University of Oregon, mostly freshmen and
sophomores, intent on pursuing careers in business, music, architecture and
journalism. They gaze from the university's 1942 yearbook, the Oregana.

But their academic careers and futures were thrown into disarray with the
signing of Executive Order 9066, the presidential edict ordering
Japanese-Americans to leave the West Coast amid the hysteria and prejudice
that followed Japan's bombing of Pearl Harbor. They scattered to other
universities farther east, or joined the military. They rebuilt their lives.

On Sunday, the 20 former students will receive honorary degrees from the UO
— degrees they had expected to have earned more than 60 years ago.

At least eight of the 20 will receive their degrees posthumously, including
two or three whose surviving family members will attend Sunday. Of those who
are still alive — all in their 80s now — at least four plan to attend in
person.

Robert Yasui, a retired surgeon battling Parkinson's disease, will travel
from his home in Pennsylvania.

"It is really a bit overwhelming to learn that the university will pay
attention to such a long-time-ago incident," Yasui said in an e-mail. "After
a long and productive life as a physician, I am grateful that I can 'end' my
career on such a positive note."

Alice Kawasaki Sumida and Sam Naito, both of Portland, and Midori Funatake
Komoto of Ontario also plan to attend. Sumida and Komoto had long careers in
nursing; Naito is a successful and still-active businessman.

Not everyone is equally enthusiastic. Makoto Iwashita, 85, said he'll
probably stay home in Portland, citing family matters and an inability to
drive long distances.

"It's a nice gesture, no doubt," he said of the honorary degree. "But my
first reaction was, even if they gave it to me, it would be mostly political
because I didn't earn it; I did not even take any exams. At my age, a degree
is not going to help me any. I already have a degree."

Sunday's ceremony is the culmination of a process that blossomed last spring
when the state Legislature approved a bill giving Oregon universities
authority to grant degrees to students who were unable to graduate in 1942
due to being sent to an internment camp. UO officials were so enthusiastic
about the idea that they decided the degrees should go to any
Japanese-American student forced to leave campus, regardless of whether they
were ever sent to a camp.

The honorary degrees, approved by the UO Senate last fall, are exceptional;
since 1942, the UO has awarded only four: to former Philippines President
Corazon Aquino, Oregon Bach Festival co-founder Helmut Rilling, former U.S.
Sen. Mark Hatfield and Children's Defense Fund founder Marian Edelman.

A 25-member planning committee has worked to organize Sunday's ceremony and
contact all the families. Committee member David Toyama said it's been
gratifying to speak with surviving family members. Among the surprises: The
eldest son of honoree Ted Hachiya did not know his late father had ever
attended the UO.

Alice Endo Aikens of Eugene, another committee member, said she's been
struck by the successful lives that many of the honorees have built despite
the hardships of their interrupted educations. Aikens said she jumped at the
chance to help the university honor its former students.

"To me, it means that the University of Oregon recognizes that a grave
injustice occurred, and is making amends," she said.

If time allows, Sunday's honorees will visit the "Forced Journey" memorial
located just outside the Hult Center on East Sixth Avenue. The memorial,
dedicated last year, includes rock pavers with the inscribed names of
individuals and families who were affected by Executive Order 9066.

Aikens, the memorial's fundraising chairwoman, said a new paver will be
inscribed later this spring bearing 23 names — including the 20 students to
be honored Sunday.

The other three names will be Harry Fukuda, who returned to the UO to
complete his degree in 1944 after transferring from Drake University in
Iowa; Hitachi Watanabe, who returned to the UO to complete a master's degree
in 1960; and Michi Yasui Ando, who missed her UO graduation ceremony in 1942
because of an 8 p.m. curfew imposed upon Japanese-Americans.

Ando was invited back to UO commencement and received her diploma in 1986.
The bronze statue of a young girl at the "Forced Journey" memorial is
modeled after her.

Ando, who died two years ago at age 86, was the elder sister of Sunday
honoree Robert Yasui. Yasui has been back to Eugene only once since being
forced to leave in 1942 — to hear his sister give her commencement speech.

One of Yasui's brothersmay soon have a permanent endowed chair named for him
at the UO School of Law. Minoru Yasui, a lawyer, gained notoriety — and jail
time — when he challenged as unconstitutional the federal government's
edicts against Japanese-American citizens.

Robert Yasui, 84, said he wants to return to Eugene this week in part to
honor his father, Masuo, who immigrated alone to the United States in 1903
at age 16. His father desperately wanted his children to receive good
educations and prosper, especially after he was denied the chance to pursue
his own dream to become a lawyer.

Yasui said his father never fully recovered from his years in a federal
prison camp during World War II, and from knowing that others doubted his
loyalty and patriotism. His father, Yasui said, became delusional in his
final years and took his own life.

"But his lasting gift to me was when he said: 'Individuals do wrong to
others out of ignorance, so if you can show them the truth, the injustice
will be corrected and now your enemy will be your friend.' "