nwasianweekly.com
May 24, 2008

The UW’s “Nikkei Class of 2008” poses in front of Suzzallo Library, echoing a group photo taken in 1941. (Photo by Karen Orders)

Students return to be honored as UW’s ‘Nikkei Class of 2008’

By James Tabafunda
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Tama Murotani-Inaba is a former University of Washington student. In 1941, she was one of about 450 Japanese American students attending the university. Her goal was to earn her degree in nursing. A lifetime member of the UW Alumni Association, she remembers working hard, hoping to one day receive her UW diploma and then pursue her nursing internship at Harborview Medical Center.

The bombing by Japanese soldiers at Pearl Harbor changed everything for her. President Franklin Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 gave all UW students of Japanese ancestry few options — one was out-of-state internment camps. By May 16, 1942, the largest minority student group at the UW ceased to exist.

But on May 18, she, her UW classmates and their surviving family members received Bachelor of Arts degrees. UW President Mark Emmert conferred the honorary degrees in a convocation called “The Long Journey Home: Honoring UW Nikkei Students from 1941-42.” About 600 people — including members of the UW board of regents, UW administrators and deans — attended the event at Kane Hall.

Emmert’s conferral to a group of students is a first in the school’s history.

The UW had the second largest population of Japanese American college students in the U.S. just before World War II. Only the University of California at Berkeley had more students in 1941 and 1942.

Murotani-Inaba, now 88, finished her sophomore year at a Quaker school, Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She later studied briefly at Bellevue School of Nursing in New York City.

“I am absolutely delighted and honored to think that the university and all of these people spent hours on this program so that we could get our honorary degrees,” said Murotani-Inaba. “I am forever thankful and really, really grateful.”

Keynote speaker Norman Mineta, former U.S. secretary of transportation and now vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton, was once detained at the Heart Mountain incarceration camp near Cody, Wyo. “For me, as with many of you, it will always live in my memory as the first time that I ever saw my dad cry,” he said. “Our lives were uprooted, and we faced the terrible burden of being considered enemy aliens in our own country.

“It’s never too late to do the right thing. It is never too late to rejoice that the right thing has finally been done,” he emphasized. “And, it’s never too late to be grateful to people who do the right thing so thank you very, very much, Mr. President, to the regents, to the staff, to everybody here at the University of Washington for doing the right thing.”

He ended his keynote speech by reminding the honorees, “Your drive and your perseverance in the face of impossible odds have more than earned the degrees that you are receiving today and the progress and the standing of the Japanese American community.”

Tetsuden Kashima, UW professor of American ethnic studies, was a 1-year-old, American-born child interned at the Topaz Relocation Center in Utah. He and Gail Nomura, UW associate professor of American ethnic studies, are the two people who proposed the event to the university’s board of regents. On Feb. 21, the board approved their idea.

Kashima told the audience, “We cannot negate the past, but we can learn from it.”

Nomura said prior to the event, “We need to get the story out. The students want the lesson to be learned that this should never happen again.”

“It is today why we recognize that an egregious error was committed in 1942. … We can learn from the extraordinary way as well, in which our honored students, today, faced and dealt with that gross injustice,” Kashima added.

He recognized the 69 UW Nikkei students who chose to prove their loyalty to America by joining the military and “putting their lives in harm’s way.” “Twelve died in combat and gave their all for our country. Many others have passed away in the intervening years from 1945 to the present. We all wish that this celebration had taken place earlier for them,” he said.

Murotani-Inaba, now officially a UW alumna, is determined to never be apart from her treasured diploma. “Before I pass on, I’m gonna have a copy made and put that in the casket,” she said. “I’ll take it with me to my grave.”

To view a video of “The Long Journey Home: Honoring UW Nikkei Students from 1941-42,” visit www.uwtv.org.

James Tabafunda can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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