California to give interned Japanese Americans degrees

[Kadie]

California to give interned Japanese Americans degrees
1 hr 11 mins ago

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The University of California said Thursday it would bestow honorary degrees on hundreds of former students of Japanese descent who were shipped off to internment camps during World War II.

University of California directors, meeting on grim budget cuts, voted to make an exception to a longstanding policy against honorary degrees to make amends to aging Japanese Americans whose educations were cut short decades ago.

The head of the university system in the most populous US state said the step was "long overdue."

"To the surviving students themselves, and to their families, I want to say, 'This is one way to apologize to you,'" University of California president Mark Yudof said in a statement.

"It will never be possible to erase what happened, but we hope we can provide you a small measure of justice," he said.

more...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090716/ts_alt_afp/usjapaneducationhistorywwii_20090716221043



Aiko 'Grace' Obata Amemiya, left, laughs with Taye Oda while holding up a UC Berkeley shirt after speaking to the University of California Board of Regents in San Francisco, Thursday, July 16, 2009. The University of California will grant honorary degrees to hundreds of Japanese Americans whose studies at UC were interrupted when they were sent to internment camps during World War II.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

[Dennis Donovan]

1. This is a great story - I'm glad they're being compensated!

However, given the injustice of being put into camps to begin with - they're owed a great deal more, IMO.

[lunatica]

2. Cool! This makes me proud of my employer

[bobbolink]

3. With one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, I'm sure that honorary

degree will be ever so helpful.

Too bad we weren't mature enough as a nation to do this l-o-n-g ago!

[omega minimo]

4. This is a powerful thing, as pathetic as it may seem to some here

Yes, it's too little too late and they never should have been interned in the first place.

However, this cultural community has been very stoic about it -- generally speaking -- and got on with their lives and kept quiet about this outrage.

Any recognition is valuable, if only to remind Americans and Californians that this happened.

:toast:

[MercutioATC]

5. Degrees in what?

Do they get to choose?


I guess I don't understand what this accomplishes other than generating press for UC.

[izquierdista]

6. Who cares?

Just think of all the job possibilities they will have, now that they have degrees! :crazy: