Jack Yoshihara at OSU's Commencement Exercises

Jack Yoshihara at OSU's Commencement Exercises

Years after their forced evacuation, two OSU students, Andy Kiyuna and Joel Fischer, began lobbying for the university to give honorary degrees to the Japanese American students. On May, 31 2007 House Bill 2823 was signed by Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski. The bill allowed state institutions of high education to award honorary post-secondary degrees to individuals, or their next-of-kin, who were forced to leave college and evacuate to an internment camp.During the 2008 OSU Commencement, the 42 Japanese-American students enrolled at OSC who were forced to abandon their studies in 1941 were honored. Twenty-five of the students were able to be contacted by the University, five of the students attended the ceremony to receive their honorary degrees in person and eleven students were represented by a family member.

Andy Cripe

OSU Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center Flickr stream [link].

Originally published with article, "Former Students Get Degrees at Last" by Kyle Odegard, Corvalllis Gazette-Times, June 16, 2008.

Corvallis Gazette-Times

June 2008

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