Last week, the University of Southern California announced that it would make amends for discriminating against Japanese Americans during World War II when the U.S. government considered the community a threat to national security.
Carol Folt, President of USC, will confer posthumous degrees on behalf of students of Japanese descent who were forced to leave their homes and be sent into concentration camps. The university withheld transcripts from students who wanted them to transfer, which hampered their ability to finish their educations. USC is currently trying to locate the families of approximately 120 students affected by the 1941-42 academic school year.
Folt stated that “I think that we are beginning to understand… there have been things that happened in the past that were not things we’re proud off.” Folt spoke with NBC Asian America. It is important to recognize that, to identify the root cause of the problems and to apologize, but perhaps even more important, to ensure that these types of issues don’t happen again.
Many college students faced uncertain futures after President Franklin Roosevelt’s 1942 Executive Order 9066. This order mandated the expulsion and subsequent imprisonment of 120,000 Japanese-Americans who resided in designated “military areas” on the West Coast. The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council was formed by several Quaker religious organizations and college administrators. It encouraged schools to accept Japanese-American students from other parts of the nation, many of whom were often children of Japanese immigrants.
The council was very successful. The West Coast schools released transcripts from students, which helped many students to graduate from other colleges. Brian Niiya is the content director at Densho, a non-profit organization that teaches Japanese American history and education.
The council allowed for some 2,000 nisei students from camp to leave and continue their education outside. Niiya stated that this was an important step. “Others were not able to continue their education, however.”
Some students chose to stay with their families in concentration camp, while others joined the military to show their loyalty to the U.S. Niiya stated that some students who wanted to continue their education found that USC was a barrier. The documents were withheld by USC campus officials under the direction of Rufus B. von KleinSmid, the president of the university at the time. This was due to his racist views and support for eugenics.
Many USC students were forced to quit their studies in the war. Afterward, Japanese American students attempted to re-enroll at USC and obtain transcripts. However, officials allegedly advised them to start over. Some claim that officials claimed their paperwork was lost.
“California was the heart of the anti-Japanese movement since the early 1900s. Niiya stated that it was safe to assume that Californians, even those in power, supported the incarceration and/or removal of Japanese Americans. It’s not surprising that the university president would hold such views. This was the norm at that time.”
Niiya stated that USC’s latest efforts to make amends were the result of the Japanese American Redress Movement, which began in 1970. Activists demanded reparations and apologies from the government for their loss of civil liberties. Niiya stated that many people received restitution in the form back pay or time off for fired employees. The movement began to push for honorary degrees for students.
After a 2009 law requiring California public universities to award honorary degrees, USC previously gave honorary degrees to students who survived in 2012. However, the school refused to honor those who had passed away because of a policy that prohibited the awarding of posthumous degrees. Folt made an exception.
According to Holt, the plan was initiated after she received a letter from Jonathan Kaji (the president of the school’s Asian Pacific Alumni Association), which has been advocating for such an action since 2007. Holt claimed it was Kaji who exposed the injustices to Holt after she had protested the awards ceremony that didn’t pay tribute to those who had died.
Folt stated that she thought immediately, “I don’t understand how it happened but this is something we can recognize and correct.” “My efforts were focused on fixing it, not trying to figure out why it didn’t happen before.”
Folt stated that the university is working closely with Japanese American community groups to locate the families of ex-students at USC and asked for the public’s help. Folt said that the descendants will receive the apology and the degrees at the next spring awards ceremony.
Niiya stated that the ceremony is important for both healing and moving on, even though it comes 80 years after students were forced from school.
