Participants pay their respects to those who passed away at Manzanar during World War II at the traditional Interfaith service during the 40th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on April 25, 2009.
Photo: Gann Matsuda
Each year, hundreds of students, teachers, community members, clergy and former internees attend the Pilgrimage. Planning is underway for the afternoon event as well as for the Manzanar At Dusk program, scheduled for 5:00 PM that same evening. Read the rest of this entry »
Reflections Of Manzanar
by Henry Fukuhara
Fukuhara, 96, was best known for his paintings of Manzanar. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is from the UCSF Today. It is reprinted here with permission. Original story: Honorary Degree Ceremony Aims To Help Right a 67-Year-Old Wrong.
by Robin Hindrey
December 7, 2009
From left, Setsuo “Ernest” Torigoe, Aiko “Grace” Obata
Amemiya and Edith Oto received their honorary
degrees from UCSF nearly seven decades after they
were sent to internment camps during World War II.
Photo: Susan Merrell
SAN FRANCISCO — All the familiar elements were there: flashing cameras, misty-eyed family members, and a live orchestra playing “Pomp and Circumstance.”
But the graduation ceremony that took place at the University of California, San Francisco on December 4, 2009 was anything but typical. The honorees were dozens of Japanese Americans whose educations were interrupted when they were sent to internment camps during World War II.
Nearly seven decades after what University of California President Mark G. Yudof called a “historical tragedy,” the UC Board of Regents agreed to grant honorary degrees to approximately 700 students enrolled at UCSF, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Davis when President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the executive order granting the military the power to intern Japanese Americans and Japanese nationals. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is from the UC Davis News Service. It is reprinted here with permission. Original story: Tears, Pride as Honorary Degrees Conferred.
Media contact: Julia Ann Easley, UC Davis News Service
(530) 752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu
Proud family members wore a photo of the late Henry Satoru Marubashi to the ceremony where an honorary
degree was conferred on him.
Photo: Julia Ann Easley/UC Davis
Christine Pooley swelled with emotion after a University of California honorary degree was conferred on her late father, who had been forced from his studies at what is now UC Davis during World War II.
“This is like closure,” she said.
Pooley’s father, Henry Satoru Marubashi, was one of 47 former Japanese American students honored amid the pomp and circumstance of a graduation ceremony at UC Davis on December 12, 2009.
Receiving their degrees in person were three California residents: Yoshio John Kashiki of Parlier; Ben Hatanaka of Stockton; and Harold Haruya Takahashi of Rocklin. Family members and friends represented ten other honorees. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is a press release from the National Park Service.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 12, 2010
Contact: Alisa Lynch or Nancy Hadlock
Phone: (760) 878-2194 ext. 2711 or ext. 2716
To download a printable flyer (PDF) for this event,
click on the image above.
“All Americans had to adapt during World War II, including Japanese Americans confined at Manzanar,” said Les Inafuku, Superintendent, Manzanar National Historic Site. “Future visitors to Block 14 can learn how Japanese Americans lived at Manzanar, and improved their living situations. Our elders can still inspire us to improve our lives and help shape our great nation.”
In operation from 1942-45, Manzanar War Relocation Center confined more than 10,000 Japanese Americans in 36 blocks. Each block included 14 barracks buildings, a mess hall, a recreation building, latrines, and laundry and ironing rooms. After the war, the buildings were sold for scrap lumber or relocated.
In 1997, in consultation with the Manzanar Advisory Commission, former internees, historians, and others, the NPS approved the development of Block 14 as a “demonstration block” to interpret daily life in the camp. In fiscal years 2009-10, Congress approved funding, proposed by US Senator Diane Feinstein (California), for reconstructing Barracks 1 and 8 on Block 14. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is from the University of California, Berkeley NewsCenter. It is reprinted here with permission.
By Cathy Cockrell, University of California, Berkeley NewsCenter
December 16, 2009
Yukio Kawamoto celebrates his
freshly minted UC Berkeley diploma.
Photo: Cathy Cockrell/UC Berkeley NewsCenter
In a special ceremony during the traditional December convocation on Sunday, December 13, 2009, the elderly Japanese Americans accepted their honorary diplomas. Mounting the stage in Haas Pavilion’s cavernous basketball arena, some with the help of canes, they sat in two long rows of chairs, wearing mortar boards, gowns, and blue-and-gold leis of origami cranes fashioned by local school children.
For 78 additional Japanese Americans now deceased or too infirm to attend, family members accepted diplomas in their honor.
“I’m just glad to see my Grandma and my Dad be able to be represented in graduating, after what happened. I’m happy,” declared twelve-year-old Nathan Tokuno at an honorary luncheon preceding the formal ceremony. Read the rest of this entry »
The following was excerpted from press releases issued by the California State University system.
California State University System To Grant Honorary Degrees To Japanese American Internees: Seeking Former Students Who May Be Eligible
LONG BEACH, CA — The California State University Board of Trustees voted unanimously to grant honorary bachelor’s degrees to Japanese Americans who were enrolled at CSU campuses and forced to internment camps during World War II.
The first degree was awarded September 23, 2009, to Aiko Nishi Uwate, a Japanese American woman who was removed from San Francisco State University and sent to the Gila River concentration camp in Arizona. The posthumous degree was accepted by Uwate’s daughter, Vivian Uwate Nelson, a resident of Los Angeles County. Read the rest of this entry »
The following is a press release from the California Community Colleges.
January 11, 2010
Contact: Paige Marlatt Dorr
Office: (916) 327-5356
Cell: (916) 601-8005
Office E-mail: pdorr@cccco.edu
BlackBerry: pmarlatt@comcast.net
CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES TO HONOR FORMER STUDENTS IMPRISONED DURING WORLD WAR II: Search Underway For Those Who May Be Eligible
SACRAMENTO, CA — After nearly 70 years, many former California Community College students who were unable to complete their studies due to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II will finally be honored. As part of the California Nisei College Diploma Project, the University of California, California State University and California Community Colleges are undergoing massive efforts to locate these individuals and bestow them with a degree. Read the rest of this entry »
Back in 2002, the Manzanar National Historic Site (a unit of the National Park Service) did an oral history with former Manzanar Committee chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey, one of the founders of the Manzanar Pilgrimage and the driving force behind the preservation of Manzanar and its development into a National Historic Site.
In this twelve-part oral history, Embrey discussed his family’s life and experiences in pre-World War II Los Angeles, their time behind the barbed wire at Manzanar and much more. Read the rest of this entry »
Back in 2002, the Manzanar National Historic Site (a unit of the National Park Service) did an oral history with former Manzanar Committee chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey, one of the founders of the Manzanar Pilgrimage and the driving force behind the preservation of Manzanar and its development into a National Historic Site.
In this twelve-part oral history, Embrey discussed his family’s life and experiences in pre-World War II Los Angeles, their time behind the barbed wire at Manzanar and much more. Read the rest of this entry »
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