Since 1955, only four alumni have received honorary degrees from the University. On Sunday, an additional 20 were added to that list.
All 20 honorees, half of whom are deceased, were Japanese-American University students whose academic careers ended prematurely in 1942 when Presidential Executive Order 9066 required them to evacuate to internment camps during World War II. In accordance with a recently passed state bill that allows Oregon universities to award these former students honorary degrees, the University hosted a luncheon and graduation ceremony Sunday for the 20 students forced out 66 years ago.
“Never have I been at an event that is as emotionally powerful and historically significant as is this event today,” University President Dave Frohnmayer said before the ceremony.
Frohnmayer characterized Sunday as “a day of lines” that ran through many lives, in particular those of the 20 people being honored. The University may never be able to erase the line its administration made in 1942, but Frohnmayer said he hoped to help “redraw that line where it should be.”
Of the 20 students evacuated, only four were able to return to Eugene for the ceremony. Midori Funatake Komoto, who only studied pre-nursing at the University for a term and a half before she was relocated, was one such honoree.
“It’s been rather exciting,” Komoto said in the middle of a group of five photographers before the ceremony. “I didn’t know I was such a celebrity!”
Robert Yasui, who studied medicine at the University before the evacuation, traveled all the way from his home in Pennsylvania for the event. He said he was “just amazed” at the scale of the event and of the University itself.

“The campus has absolutely changed,” Yasui said.
Several family members of deceased honorees also attended the ceremony to commemorate their struggles.
“He had such a good heart,” said Kyle Mokhtarian of his grandfather Thomas Hayashi. “He’d been through a lot of adversity but he never complained.”
Komoto’s daughter-in-law Janet Komoto said she was “impressed the University went to all this trouble to honor these students.”
Sunday’s event was the culmination of about a year’s planning on the University’s part. David Hubin, the executive assistant president, said his job is usually “not as intense” as it has been over the last year, but the long hours were well worth the trouble.
“There has been no project that has been more important to me than this one,” Hubin said.
The planning started shortly after Oregon House Bill 2823, passed unanimously in March last year, gave the University the opportunity to award its former Japanese-American students honorary degrees.
The bill was the brainchild of Joel Fischer, a former legislative intern who attended Sunday’s event, and his friend Andy Kiyuna. With the support of House Rep. Tina Kotek, D-Portland, Fischer and Kiyuna pushed the bill through the House, and in May, Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the bill into law.
“This is something that seems to affect a generation previous,” Fischer said. “A younger generation has to pay attention to the mistakes made and know it’s not too late to correct the mistakes.”
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