Humboldt State and the CSU are seeking public assistance to identify Japanese Americans who qualify for the Special Honorary Bachelor of Humane Letters degree. All former CSU students whose studies were disrupted due to the internment are eligible and surviving family members can receive the degree of a deceased student.
Former CSU students or their families are urged to dial 562/951-4723 or click on Nisei@calstate.edu.
President Franklin Roosevelt signed an executive order in February, 1942, that allowed military officials to set up an ‘exclusion zone’ that encompassed the entire state of California. More than 120,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese immigrants were forcibly relocated to the camps. By some estimates, hundreds of students were affected. CSU campuses in existence at the time included not only Humboldt State, but also Chico, Fresno, Pomona, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Jose and the California Maritime Academy. Records indicate that some students went on to earn their degrees, but many did not.
CSU Chancellor Charles Reed said the internment “represents the worst of a nation driven by fear and prejudice. By issuing honorary degrees, we hope to achieve a small right in the face of such grave wrongs.”
Plans call for the degrees to be conferred at spring or fall commencement exercises at each campus’s discretion.