By KYLE ODEGARD
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Friday, May 23, 2008 12:00 am
Students sent to internment camps recognized
In the spring of 1942, Noboru Endow, then a sophomore studying chemistry at Oregon State University, received a letter from the government telling him he had to leave school in five days and board a bus for Portland.
The Portland resident was devastated, even though he'd been harassed and shunned in the dorms after Japan had bombed Pearl Harbor.
In the springtime following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Americans were being rounded up and sent to internment camps because the government believed they posed a threat during wartime.
"I thought it was kind of a raw deal," said Endow, who is now 85 and lives in Santa Clara, Calif. "I didn't think there was that was that much danger. I felt like an American. I was an American. I am an American. So I didn't feel it was right. But I wanted to cooperate with the authorities."
More than 65 years later, Endow will return to OSU to receive an honorary degree during commencement ceremonies on June 15.
The university will recognize 42 Japanese-American students evacuated from campus, and present honorary degrees to 22 of them or to representatives of their families.
"A great wrong was done to them and it is never too late to do the right thing," OSU President Ed Ray said in a news release.
More than half of those to receive degrees, however, have died.
Sandy Tsuneyoshi, coordinator of the Asian/Pacific American Education Office at OSU, said it's been difficult to track down some students evacuated during World War II.
"We're still looking," she said.
So far, three of those still living plan to attend, along with family members of 13 others.
The impetus to grant honorary degrees to former students of many Oregon colleges and universities came from two OSU students, Andy Kiyuna and Joel Fischer, who pushed the idea to state Reps. Brian Clem of Salem, an OSU alumnus, and Tina Kotek of Portland. The legislators co-sponsored a bill on the matter, which Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed in May 2007.
On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt sign an executive order that led to the roundup of 120,000 Americans of Japanese heritage - about 3,500 of whom were living Oregon - and the relocation of those citizens to internment camps.
Jack Nomi, 83, was a freshman at OSU when he was sent to an "assembly center" in Portland that was a former livestock exposition center. The toilets didn't work, the buildings weren't well constructed and sand kept blowing into them. Plus there wasn't much privacy.
The expo center, however, had a pasture for grazing. Japanese- Americans dug out a baseball diamond.
"We played a lot of ball," Nomi said.
Nomi was transferred to an Idaho camp in September 1942, where he was able to pick potatoes and sugar beets for farmers who wanted labor.
In the spring of 1943, he was able to get FBI clearance to attend the University of Missouri School of Mines.
He graduated with an engineering degree and worked for Boeing for many years, retiring on Mercer Island, Wash.
Endow was almost immediately sent to Eastern Oregon to work on a sugar beet farm, and he too was allowed to attend college at the University of Utah, where he received his chemistry degree.
Only about five students who were evacuated from OSU returned to graduate in Corvallis.
Endow said he thinks the honorary degrees is important in righting a wrong, but also in preventing another one from recurring.
"It's an opportunity for people to recognize the gravity of the situation then, and the gravity of the situation now for civil rights infringements that take place when we're at war. The government shouldn't have the power they do to imprison people without due process."
Letter to OSU
In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, many Japanese-Americans at OSU sent a letter, describing their loyalty to the school, the state and the nation, to university President F.A. Gillfillan.
"In view of the existence of a formal state of war between the United States and the Japanese Empire, we the undersigned American citizens of Japanese ancestry desire to express to you, our College President, our unswerving loyalty to our country, the United States of America, and to all her institutions.
"We have found friends, peace of mind and inspiration here at Oregon State. It is our desire to continue our normal program subject to the new duties of citizenship imposed by war. Furthermore we shall endeavor to transmit to our parents a greater realization of the duties of citizenship through our associations with them, some of whom share the joys of citizenship in our great country, only through us, their American born sons and daughters.
"We will deeply appreciate any opportunity to prove our mettle and our devotion to the College and to our State and Nation. We hope that the trial of this supreme national test will prove a unifying and enlightening influence upon all Americans and their resident relatives from foreign lands."
Kyle Odegard covers Oregon State University. He can be contacted at kyle.odegard@lee.net or 758-9523.