USC awarding honorary degrees to Japanese American students whose education was disrupted during WWII

Giselle Rhoden, CNN

Kristina Hayashi was a teacher’s assistant in a US history class when she saw a picture of her great uncle for the first time in 2013.

During a lesson on WWII, she noticed a LA Times article about Henry Kondo in a textbook. Throughout the years, she’d heard stories about her relative who was a Japanese American soldier killed in action.

“Growing up, I knew I had this great uncle that was killed during World War II…but I had never seen a picture of him,” Hayashi told CNN.

Shortly after Hayashi’s discovery as a teacher’s assistant, her aunt showed her the letters Kondo wrote to his father as well as photos of him before he enlisted.

Nearly 10 years later, Hayashi — who is now a curator at the Japanese American National Museum — continues to learn more about Kondo and the struggles he faced as a Japanese American during World War II.

But Kondo faced injustices before the war when he was a student at the University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles. He was among dozens of Japanese American students who were not able to complete their studies in the 1940s after being sent to internment camps during the war.

The university believes there were about 120 Nisei students — a term for people born in America to parents, who came to the US from Japan — at the school on February 19, 1942, when the order was issued.

On Friday, USC is holding a commencement ceremony posthumously awarding honorary degrees to Nisei students.

Following President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order during World War II, Japanese Americans were forced into detention centers. Many Japanese students had to make a difficult decision: Give up their education at USC and either enlist in the war effort or remain in internment camps.

Few Nisei students returned to USC after the war ended and many completed their degrees elsewhere, according to USC.

Two living students already have received their degrees, said Ron Mackovich-Rodriguez, USC’s media relations specialist, in a statement. The descendants of the others will accept the degrees in their honor during Friday’s ceremony.

In November, USC announced they were apologizing for the school’s discriminatory practices — which included withholding transcripts — during World War II.

Friday’s ceremony is part the Asian Pacific Alumni Association Gala in Pasadena. USC also plans to dedicate a rock garden on campus to the former students.

University acknowledges its wrongdoing

Hayashi said this ceremony “is in some ways late” since many of the Nisei students have passed and cannot accept the degrees themselves. But she added that this is an opportunity for USC to acknowledge its wrongdoing. She said a moment like this is “something that’s important” to the families of Nisei students.

Her great uncle will be one of the students honored during the ceremony. Hayashi said Kondo was a Pasadena native and the oldest son in his family. He was studying at USC to become a pharmacist when he and his family were forced into a detention center in Arizona during the war. Kondo then enlisted and became a Nisei soldier. In 1944, he was killed in action.

The Nisei soldiers were the segregated 442nd Regiment during World War II, according to Hayashi. She said these soldiers were given some of the toughest missions during the war effort because of the discrimination against Japanese Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Nisei were also “the most decorated unit in US history for their size and length of service,” Hayashi said.

The 442nd regiment totaled about 18,000 Nisei men, according to the National WWII Museum.

Nisei was both a term to describe the Japanese American regiment and a term to describe anyone of Japanese descent during World War II.

To escape internment, some Nisei became soldiers while others tried to attend college. USC, however, made it difficult for Nisei students to continue their education after Roosevelt’s executive order.

This is what happened to John Fujioka. His son, Dr. Lawrence Fujioka told CNN his father was forced to leave USC in 1942 while he was studying to become a dentist. He was forced to stay in the Santa Anita Assembly Center in California.

When he tried to reapply to another university, USC withheld his transcript making it more difficult for him to get to dental school. Fujioka said eventually, his father graduated from dental school at St. Louis University in 1946, and he practiced dentistry with his father for 23 years until he died in 2000.

Fujioka’s father was one the first posthumous degrees USC awarded in 2012 at a different ceremony. He said although the acknowledgment is long overdue, he is still pleased with USC for owning up to its mistakes.

“I feel proud of USC for what they’ve finally done. It’s a great university and my dad enjoyed his time there. I think he would be proud of what they did.”

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CNN’s David Williams contributed to this report.