Japanese-Americans interned in WWII get diplomas
Here’s a neat story from today’s USA Today: Japanese-Americans interned in WW2 get diplomas. I particularly like the first quote. In my own experience, high school graduation was a much bigger deal to me than college graduation. Graduating in a class of a few hundred versus a few thousand makes a big difference. Also, the demographics are a lot closer, and the school experiences are much more common than college. I love my university and still have good friends from there, but high school graduation seems to live up to its billing: it’s the beginning of adulthood. Not everyone chooses college, so it’s not a cultural milestone the way high school graduation is.
I’m glad these men and women received their dimplomas from their original schools. It’s a dark chapter of our history and one I hope we never repeat, but at least this shows that we can try to correct ourselves.
“Some may consider a high school diploma just a piece of paper, but it’s a symbol to me,” Hoshizaki told the audience of several hundred. The diploma project is the result of legislation sponsored by Democratic Assemblywoman Sally Lieber allowing school districts to bestow diplomas to students interned by the government during World War II. Some 120,000 Japanese-Americans, most of them from California, were forced into camps. Since Lieber’s legislation passed last year, more than 400 people have received diplomas, some posthumously. In 1988, the U.S. government officially apologized for the internments and offered $20,000 to eligible survivors, but the diplomas have helped survivors make their experience relevant to the younger generations.
