NikkeiWest--Northern California Japanese American Newspaper

By J.K. Yamamoto

BERKELEY—UC Berkeley’s Class of 2009 had a unique experience at the Dec. 13 commencement ceremony — graduating along with Japanese Americans who had attended the university 67 years earlier.

The granting of honorary degrees to 120 former Cal students was part of an effort by the University of California system to recognize nearly 700 Japanese Americans who were unable to graduate because they were uprooted from their homes and held in internment camps during World War II. UC San Francisco held a special ceremony just for the Nisei alumni on Dec. 4; UC Davis honored the Nisei during its commencement on Dec. 12. UCLA will hold a ceremony in the spring.

The California State University and California Community College systems are planning similar events.

Forty-two Nikkei were on hand to personally accept their degrees, which were inscribed with a Latin phrase, “Inter Silvas Academi Restituere Iustitiam” (To Restore Justice Among the Groves of the Academy). Wearing the traditional caps and gowns, they shared the stage at Haas Pavilion with university officials and the afternoon’s main speakers. Posthumous recipients and those who were unable to attend were represented by their families.

The honorees and their families had a chance to mingle before the ceremony during a luncheon held in the Pauley Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union.

They were greeted by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who read a proclamation from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) praising the university for honoring “those deserving and courageous individuals,” and introduced the ceremony’s keynote speaker, Norman Mineta, vice chairman of Hill & Knowlton, former U.S. secretary of transportation, and a 1953 Cal graduate.

“A Little Bit Too Late”

Duncan Ryuken Williams, chair of the Center for Japanese Studies, noted that Cal’s ties to Japan and Japanese Americans go back to the late 19th century, when Berkeley became one of the first U.S. universities to admit Japanese students. As the Issei settled in California, he said, they “looked to education as their gateway into American society —  a society in which they faced the challenges of a nation intent on excluding ‘Orientals’ and with discriminatory laws barring citizenship, equal access to education and the ownership of land for Japanese immigrants.

“A small number of these Issei attended Cal, and intent on overcoming these kinds of barriers, helped each other through the founding of the Japanese Student Club around 1910, then as a community established in 1923 a Nisei student dorm to house the increasing number of now second-generation Japanese Americans or the Nisei, who still faced housing discrimination from some landlords in Berkeley ...

“Today we honor the Nisei Japanese Americans who came to Cal with the high hopes and aspirations of their Issei immigrant parents, a sizable 454 students enrolled in the years 1941 to ‘42 who found themselves in the spring semester of 1942 faced with an uncertain future of their country at war with the land of their parents and ancestors.”

Williams paid tribute to individuals like George Ichiro Nakamura, “who had to leave Berkeley for the Tule Lake camp, and was then killed in action in the Philippines serving his country as part of the Military Intelligence Service, a sacrifice quite astounding considering the fact that his family members were still behind barbed wire, incarcerated by the same U.S. government that he so loyally served.”

Despite assistance from the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, which enabled Nisei internees to attend colleges outside the West Coast, these students “lost the opportunity to complete that Cal degree that they had worked so hard for ... Our honorees have carried that hope from their parents with integrity and perseverance and rebuilt their lives, shielded and protected their children and future generations from resentment and despair,” Williams said.

He acknowledged that the ceremony “comes a little bit too late. It’s late because you had to wait 67 years ...  because other universities, such as the University of Washington, have done this ahead of us ... It’s late, far too late, primarily because so many of our honorees have passed on. But we are here today to right a wrong, and the process began with the approval of the honorary degrees by the UC Regents, and this event at Cal came together because of the leadership of Chancellor Birgeneau, who took a very sincere and passionate interest in doing the right thing.”

Williams told the honorees, “As a university we didn’t do enough to ensure every one of the 454 students could be here with us today. So I ask, please keep these people in your hearts as you walk together as a class, a generation of Cal alums who inspired so many.”

Remembering Helen Mineta

Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani, a Cal alum, was asked by the UC Office of the President to serve as a community representative in the planning of the event. She dedicated  her speech to the late Helen Mineta, her high school history teacher and Norman Mineta’s older sister.

She described her mentor as “a well-read woman with a passion for the arts, a voracious intellect and a penchant for driving very fast … an inspiration to all who knew and loved her well.

“I originally had no intention of attending UC Berkeley,” Tsuchitani recalled. “Helen, however, would change my mind. I remember that fated afternoon in her classroom when I broke the news to her about my college plans. Expecting her to be as excited as I about my future, she instead shook her head and proceeded to extol the virtues of a Cal education … I passed through Sather Gate … with this Oski Bear in hand that Helen gave me on my high school graduation day.“

As she asked the honorees to stand, Tsuchitani said, “To this day I have never regretted my journey here …  And I will always remember fondly the former students whose journey here has made mine possible.”

The degree recipients and family representatives were presented with leis made of origami cranes, a symbol of courage and strength. On behalf of the students, staff, faculty and community leaders, Tsuchitani said, “We celebrate you and we thank you for your strength to build and rebuild beautiful families and communities despite experiencing one of the worst civil rights betrayals in U.S. history. We also reassure you of our commitment to never forget these legacies you have left us.”

Asking Mineta to stand, she continued, “The last day I saw your sister was at the hospital about three weeks prior to her passing. I brought this Oski Bear with me with every intention of returning it to her, hoping that it might cheer her. She insisted instead that I keep it as a reminder that all things are possible with a Cal education. Since Helen’s passing, I have thought long and hard about returning this Oski to your family, and today seems like an especially good day to do this.

“But as my two-year-old daughter Akemi would say, ‘Mine, mine, mine.’ Instead, I hope you will please accept this new Oski and this lei of cranes made by Helen’s colleagues at Gunderson High School in her honor. Although she’s no longer with us, I’m certain that she would be so happy and so proud that her little brother Norman, as she so affectionately referred to you, is representing the family and community well today.”

Mineta was visibly moved as he accepted the gifts.

Mineta was visibly moved as he accepted the bear from Tsuchitani's 7-year-old son, Kohei, and a lei made by his sister's colleagues from Gunderson High School, presented by Kristine Kimura.

To all of the Nisei who attended Cal, Tsuchitani said, “Okage sama de. We are who we are today because of you, and for this we thank you.”

Past, Present Students Meet

At the commencement, Birgeneau introduced the Nisei honorees to the Class of 2009. He quoted one of them, the late Dr. Nobuyuki Kawata, who was interviewed by his granddaughter, Marissa Watanabe, also a Cal alum. Kawata said that Berkeley did all it could to place him in a university outside the West Coast so that he could continue his studies. The American Friends Service Committee helped him get into Washington University in St. Louis.

Noting that then-UC President Dr. Gordon Sproul and Berkeley faculty members openly opposed the internment, Birgeneau said, “It is reassuring to know that there were those who sought to minimize harm,” but that did not change the fact that the students’ rights were violated.

“We thank these graduates for their perseverance, integrity and indomitable spirit,” he said. “You are an example to us all and we are proud to call you Golden Bears. In joining the Class of 2009, you have made this a most memorable and moving convocation, one that will always be remembered by everyone present here today.”

The student speaker, West Hays, told the Nisei, “Your presence here demonstrates a kindness and forgiveness that few people are capable of.” Noting that the late Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, a 1912 Berkeley graduate, supported the internment as attorney general of California, Hays said, “I am ashamed of the mistakes made by my state and by that graduate of this institution nearly 70 years ago, and I am more than honored to share the stage with you today. “

Chizu Kitano Iiyama, 88, a long-time community activist, spoke on behalf of the honorees. She thanked everyone who made the ceremony possible, especially Assemblymember Warren Furutani (D-Long Beach), who authored a resolution calling on the state’s colleges and universities to award the honorary degrees.

At the same time, she pointed out, “Today we find that we have only a few people left. We are missing people who are gone who have contributed so much, and we are also missing people who are disabled. I’d also like to say that honorary degrees are not just going to those of us who are UC Berkeley people, but go to the Japanese American community.”

Recalling her days on campus, beginning in 1938, Iiyama told the astonished audience that the fees were only $26 a semester, and a B average in high school was enough to gain admission. But there was a negative aspect as well: “My advisor asked me what my educational goals were. I was very excited. I said, ‘I want to be a teacher.’ He looked back at me, he shook his head and he said, ‘There are no jobs for Japanese American teachers.’ We faced tremendous discrimination. Then he brightened up and said, ‘How about being a social worker?’

“I was 16 years old, very naïve. I didn’t even question it. I’m sure today’s students would make a big to-do about that, but at that time I guess we didn’t have a tradition of questioning authority.“

Iiyama remembered the “shock” of the internment for the Japanese Americans who were U.S. citizens, who made up two-thirds of the Nikkei population and whose median age was 17. “We were told we had to leave in five days. You could only take what you could carry … There was tremendous loss in terms of personal property. Again, it was our parents and our older sisters and brothers who had to bear the brunt of making those decisions about what to do.”

At the age of 20, Iiyama was put in charge of recreation and education at the Santa Anita Assembly Center near Los Angeles. “One of the things I had to do at that time was to visit the classes that we set up … Every morning as I went by, I would hear the children, first-grade and second-grade children, taking the Pledge of Allegiance and then singing ‘God Bless America.’ I knew that this was wrong for us to be in camp.”

In later years, she interviewed former teachers from the camps who also experienced the irony of teaching about the Constitution to students whose rights had been taken away.

The Nikkei community learned “the importance of fighting for civil rights,” Iiyama said. “And we rely very much on the student population to work for a better America, to work for better conditions for people . We learned not to accept everything we’re told. We learned to question authority, to see what’s right and what’s wrong.”

In addition to the recent UC budget cuts, she cited immigration and global warming as areas where “further fights” are needed.

Noting that the community now has prominent political figures like Mineta, Iiyama concluded, “We have followed through with our education at Cal.”

Cal Alum Returns

Christina Tanouye, a second-year student at Berkeley, introduced Mineta. Thanking the honorees for their presence, she said, “My grandparents were affected by the executive order and were forced to leave California during World War II. They played a great part in my childhood.” She added that she would not be at Cal today without the values they instilled in her.

Mineta was interned at the Heart Mountain camp in Wyoming as a child and graduated from Berkeley with a degree in business administration. Tanouye listed his accomplishments, including serving as a council member and mayor of San Jose, representing Silicon Valley in Congress for 20 years, and becoming secretary of commerce under President Clinton and secretary of transportation under President Bush.

“It’s always easier to deliver commencement addresses in times when you know the graduates that you’re addressing are heading into a booming economy … It isn’t easy out there these days and you know that already,” Mineta said. “No one knows exactly how we’re going to come out of this economic crisis. But I can say ... if anyone is likely to find a way out, it’s going to be you …

“When you least expect it, lives can go off track. But they can also be rebuilt and reclaimed … If you have any doubts about the scope of the challenges that you are capable of overcoming, I will call your attention to the group of people with whom you have generously agreed to share this event today.”

As an 11-year-old when Pearl Harbor was attacked, Mineta said, “It will always live in my memory as the first time I ever saw my father cry. He could not understand why the land of his birth was now attacking the land of his heart. He had been in America for over 30 years. My mother had been here for more than 20. They came to this country from Japan searching for a better life for themselves and their children, and they found it.

“Along the way, they had fallen in love with their adopted their country. They loved what it was, and they loved what it might one day grow to be. Never once did he or any of us… have a single doubt about where our loyalties lay. Unfortunately, that was not something that our government or many of our fellow Americans were prepared to understand or believe or even accept. Their reaction is one of the reasons we are here today ...

“These students had their lives turned upside down and their plans for the future put in danger. Like all Japanese Americans, their loyalty to this country was not just called into question, it was dismissed. The men and women you honor today were doing what we were all told good Americans do: study hard, work hard, get a college degree, find a way to make a unique contribution to the life of this great country. But they found their educations disrupted by those who did not trust them simply because of their ancestry.”

As the community struggled to rebuild after the camps, there was something that provided hope, Mineta said. “For every act of injustice that we suffered, we encountered an act of kindness as well. So many of us lost farms and businesses and homes. Some of us returned home to find these homes, farms and businesses has been protected by friends who refused to forsake us. And even in the camps, we encountered people who volunteered to share our burdens, especially the Quakers who entered the camps as doctors and nurses and teachers …

“In the decades that followed, we found friends and allies of every race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation who refused to let the injustices we had suffered pass by without redress. “

The result was a bill providing not only “recognition that the internment was wrong, but a national commitment that nothing like it would ever happen again. Today with your actions here, you have added your names to their number. So to all December graduates, I offer you my congratulations and also my thanks.”

Birgeneau then presented the degrees, first to family members of those who were absent and then to the former students. Each presentation was accompanied by loud cheers from the audience.

The 2009 doctoral, master’s and undergraduate degree candidates followed. They included Kiri Inouye, Catherine Masuda, Garrett Morimoto, Toshiko Shek, Vanessa Tamaru and Jeffrey Uchida.

The long day ended with a reception in one of the pavilion’s clubrooms, giving everyone involved in the ceremony a final chance to meet and greet.

Recipients’ Reflections

Masako Martha Nozawa Suzuki, known for her work with the Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, said after the ceremony, “It was a mixed feeling … There were so many in my class that I didn’t know everybody, but there were a few (at the ceremony) that I knew. Not too many. Most of them are gone, sadly.”

Looking at the Class of 2009, she reflected, “I guess we would have looked like that, young like that, had we stayed on.”

Suzuki got her degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. She worked a couple of years at UCSF and spent several years at Cal in microbiology research.

The late Lily Chieko Kawahara Higashi was represented by several relatives, including her sister and brother-in-law, Momo and Roy Hatamiya. “She was here right when the war broke out,” said Mr. Hatamiya. “After going to internment camp … she didn’t have a chance to go back (to school).”

He added that his first cousin, Frank Hatamiya, had to leave UC Davis because of the internment. “He never went back. They tracked down his son, so he went to the ceremony yesterday. Very impressive.”

Gyo Obata, son of famed UC Berkeley art instructor Chiura Obata and partner at HOK Architects in St. Louis, had his youngest son, Max, accept on his behalf.

“I wish my dad could be here to see it,” said Max Obata. “He was so honored when they called him … I’m just happy to be able to do it for him. He’s working in St. Louis right now. He’s coming out in a couple of weeks for New Year’s, but couldn’t be here for this, unfortunately ...

“I went to Middlebury College in Vermont, but I just moved out here to work at an architectural firm a couple of months ago, so everything’s kind of tied back to Berkeley in a way. So it’s real nice.”

Chiyo Nao Wada, who completed her studies at Cal and received her diploma in the mail, attended the UCSF ceremony but was unable to attend her own ceremony at Cal. She was represented by her 22-year-old grandson, Benjamin Wada.

Yuri Date Torigoe and Setsuo Ernest Torigoe had the unique pleasure of seeing each other get their degrees. She was one of the 42 Cal alums and he was one of only three UCSF alums who took part in the Dec. 4 ceremony.