California Community College seeks pre-WWII students for Diploma Project
February 9, 2010
Sacramento, Calif. - Sacramento City College has begun a statewide search for former Japanese American students whose studies were forcibly suspended in 1942, when Executive Order 9066 was issued. These efforts are part of the California Nisei College Diploma Project, an initiative that seeks to award all those who were impacted by EO 9066 with honorary degrees.
The California Nisei College Diploma Project is the implementation of AB 37, a bill introduced by Assemblyman Warren Furutani (D-Long Beach) and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on October 11, 2009. The bill requests that California Community Colleges, the University of California and the California State University systems “confer an honorary degree upon each individual whose studies […] were disrupted by Executive Order 9066, and […] allow a representative to accept an honorary degree on behalf of individuals who are deceased,” as stated in its text.
“AB 37 is a unique opportunity for our college and community to do our part in righting the wrongs of nearly 70 years ago,” said Keith Muraki, a Sacramento City College counselor whose late father, Tom Muraki, was interned in 1942. “For me, this is an opportunity to recognize and honor the Nisei [second-generation Japanese American], and to a large degree, the Issei [first-generation Japanese immigrants] for the many sacrifices they made for all of us.”
According to the California Nisei Diploma Project, more than 2,500 Japanese American students were affected by the order — among them were more than 1,200 community college students. It is estimated that approximately 224 Nisei were studying at what was then called Sacramento Junior College when the order was signed into law — this is the second highest number of students impacted by the order per institution, with Long Beach City College being the first, with 265 students.
“We hope to locate as many of our former Japanese American students as possible,” said Dr. Kathryn E. Jeffery, Sacramento City College’s president. “It is with great anticipation that we look forward to this rare opportunity to correct an injustice, to receive former students and members of their family, and to proudly acknowledge their pursuit of higher education.”
Muraki will be receiving an honorary degree on behalf of his father. He, along with former students or their next of kin, will participate in the college’s Commencement exercises to be held on May 19, 2010, at Sacramento City College, in Hughes Stadium.
To help facilitate its search, Sacramento City College has launched a Web site that includes, among other resources, a list in progress of former students who may have been attending Sacramento Junior College in 1942. For more information, or to help the college identify and locate former Japanese American students, please visit www.scc.losrios.edu/scc_nisei_diploma_project.xml or contact Kim Goff at 916-558-2054.
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