Nisei students, ex-internees receive honorary degrees
Some receive diploma posthumously during San Jose State University’s commencement ceremony May 29 at Spartan Stadium
By Sheila Sanchez
Brothers Milo and Joe Yoshino tried hard to contain the tears, but they couldn’t.
Wearing a black-and-white photograph of their deceased aunt, May Horio, on their chests, the Nisei woman was among 24 former Japanese American students who received honorary bachelor of humane letters degrees the morning of May 29 during San Jose State University’s commencement due to their educations being interrupted in 1942 following the outbreak of World War II.
Born and raised in Alameda, Horio was attending San Francisco State University when WWII broke out. She was sent to an internment camp in Topaz, Utah. She returned to Alameda after the war, eventually moved to Hawaii where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Hawaii, Milo Yoshino said.
“It’s just wonderful. It’s an honor for me to accept the diploma on her behalf,” said the 65-year-old Walnut Creek accountant whose cousin, Horio’s oldest son, David, asked him to accept the diploma on his mother’s behalf.
“I was always amazed at what they were able to accomplish after coming out of the camps and can’t help but hold them up to the highest example and the highest esteem. They never let it keep them down. They achieved so much. They made things so much better for us,” Joe Yoshino said, his voice breaking.
Their father, too, was imprisoned during the war hysteria, but joined the segregated, all-Japanese American U.S. Army unit known as the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.
Gregory Ishizaki was helping mother Takako Ishizaki, of San Francisco, receive the honorary degree for his late father, Koichi Ishizaki, who died in September of 2001. He had graduated from high school in Menlo Park and had enrolled in college when the war broke, but was relocated to an internment camp, where he was imprisoned for a year until he joined the 442nd, Gregory Ishizaki said.
“At the time, I didn’t think anything of it (being incarcerated). Everyone was in the same boat,” Takako Ishizaki, 85, said. “It’s a wonder that they remember … it’s been so many years.”
The recognition was part of California State University Nisei Diploma Project, which partnered with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California in San Francisco, the Japanese American Museum of San Jose and the San Jose Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League to find JA students forced to leave school because of the war. In October 2009, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a law directing post-secondary institutions to confer honorary degrees to Nisei, children of Japanese immigrants born in this country, but victims of racism and discrimination because of the war. CSU campuses have located 250 students eligible for the degrees.
“These individual succeeded despite having their lives uprooted and dreams disrupted as a result of dramatic events that affected them through no fault of their own,” said CSU trustee Dr. Peter Mehas to the applause of about 8,000 graduates in the middle of the field; their families and friends also cheering.
In the spring of 1942, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government ordered roughly 120,000 JA, two thirds of whom were U.S.-born citizens, to be incarcerated without trials or hearings, some with as little as 48 hours notice. Allowed to take only what they could carry, they were held initially in temporary facilities, such as the Santa Anita Race Track in Los Angeles County and the Tanforan Race Track in Northern California. After several months, they were transported to internment camps in desolate areas of the country, where they were imprisoned for up to four years.
San Ramon resident Tim Agawa’s children, Griffen, 7, and Logan, 11, accepted the degree on behalf of grandmother Mary Agawa, 87, of Hayward. He said it was difficult to get his mother to participate in the project as she, along with the other Nisei, don’t like to talk about what happened due to embarrassment. She was unable to attend due to hip-replacement surgery.
“Even though she’s reluctantly receiving this, for my children to see this, I’m very proud of what she and the others did,” he said, holding back tears. “To go through what they did … it’s tough to top that and move ahead without a lot of resentment. They remained positive and moved us along. It’s a testament to their character,” Tim Agawa added.
CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said the internment of JA citizens represents “the worst of a nation driven by fear and prejudice. By issuing honorary degrees, we hope to achieve a small right in the face of such grave wrongs.”
SJSU was one of six CSU campuses holding commencement ceremonies to honor the JA former students and their families.
Five actual Nisei were in attendance during the ceremony, the rest were relatives. About half of the 250 students identified attended SJSU.
Commencement speaker Jon Iwata, senior vice president of marketing and communications at IBM, a SJSU alumnus, encouraged the graduates to learn from the Nisei’s example of determination, sacrifice, hard work hard and dreams for the future.
Castro Valley resident Bessie Kawachi Chin, 87, was also among the honorees. She said she was attending SJSU when the war began. In March of 1942 she was interned in Heart Mountain, Wyo., with her mother, Fumi Kawachi, and younger sister, Mae Kawachi. After being incarcerated for a few months, she went to school in St. Louis, Miss., took classes at UC-Berkley, married and never finished her degree.
“I’m excited … I’m pleased … We’ve gone a full circle … this is where I started,” Chin said.
Daughter Liana Carty explained her mother had healed from the traumatic experience through teaching American history to local schools. She’s made a quilt along with other JA women with images of the internment camps, each square containing a picture of the trauma – the barbed wire, the guard tower and the precious broken dishes destroyed while rushed to the camps.
“It always felt like unfinished business. It’s been more than 70 years … it’s been unresolved not just for her but also for the entire group,” Carty said.
SJSU President Jon Whitmore descended from the stage to present the degrees to the JA ex-internees or their representatives in the center of the stadium. Many openly wept as they received the diplomas.
Barbara Ando accepted the degree in honor of her late father Noboru Ando.
San Jose State judo coach Yoshihiro Uchida, 90, received the honor for himself and for his late brother-in-law Shigelu Hiraki.
“It was very emotional for all of us. It’s an honor to have been recognized after so many years … Most of us felt that the American public had sort of forgotten about the whole thing,” Uchida said, adding that the ceremony brought back memories of former President Ronald Reagan’s Congressional legislation that tried to provide restitution to surviving JA relocated by the war tragedy of the internment camps.
“We were sort of pushed down to become second-rate citizens. We had no rights. It’s taken the Nisei a long time to get over it,” Uchida noted.
Joyce Mineta, daughter Mari Mineta Clapp and granddaughter Marissa Clapp accepted the honor on behalf of husband Albert Kazuke Mineta and the late Helen Mineta, siblings of Norman Mineta, the ex-congressman and former U.S. secretary of transportation.
After the degrees were conferred, the audience of about 20,000 people rose and gave the JA group a standing ovation.
The group then enjoyed a relaxing lunch outside the Issei Memorial Building hosted by the Japanese American Museum of San Jose, the San Jose Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League and their presidents Aggie Idemoto and Leon Kimura, respectively.
