A college degree cannot compensate for four months of human degradation, but for some it is a step in the right direction.
A bill that passed unanimously in the Oregon House one week ago, HB 2823, would award honorary degrees to Japanese-Americans whose state college educations were interrupted when the government forced them into internment camps during World War II. The bill would also award honorary degrees posthumously to an internee’s next-of-kin.
Alice Sumida, 84, would qualify for one of those degrees. The Portland native graduated from Washington High School, and in 1941 she enrolled as a freshman at the University of Oregon.
“My uncle was gung-ho on that,” she said. “He was a football fan and (the University) had a good team.”
But her life and her collegiate experience came to an abrupt halt when, under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, she and 120,000 other Japanese-Americans were forced to relocate to internment camps.
Sumida was held in Minidoka, an Idaho camp, for eight months – “not that long,” she said.
Upon release, she moved to Chicago and began working domestic jobs. She decided to try to finish her education and applied to some East coast schools. Her first choice, the University of Virginia, had classes similar to the nursing track she had been on at Oregon, but she couldn’t afford the tuition. Sumida was eventually rejected from several schools because of her Japanese ancestry.
“We were very bitter and sad, and everything seemed impossible or improbable,” she said. “I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll have to put education on the back burner and get a job where I can earn some money.’”
Sumida said she tried to stay positive, even though she had little hope that she would ever actually become a nurse.
Then, in 1944, she was accepted to a nursing training program in Rochester, N.Y. She received her professional certification three years later, but would still face future struggles while seeking an undergraduate degree.
Righting a Wrong
Japanese-American experiences similar to Sumida’s prompted two college students to take action.
The initiators of the movement for honorary degrees, Joel Fischer and his friend Andy Kiyuna, were inspired by an ethics and diversity class they were enrolled in at OSU together. Fischer said the class dealt with race and oppression, and the two of them discussed the honorary degree idea heavily.
“It became something that he thought was really tangible and he thought that he could change,” Fischer said. “It was pretty clear that it was a simple, easy thing that would have a positive impact.”
Kiyuna, who is half-Japanese, unsuccessfully attempted to interest the ASOSU and OSU’s administration with the premise, so Fischer suggested that Kiyuna take his idea to the state legislature.
“It’s really his passion for the subject that was pushing this whole thing through,” Fischer said.
Fischer forwarded the idea to Portland Representative Tina Kotek, one of the bill’s co-sponsors, and she was enthusiastic.
“This bill is a small gesture to redress the harm caused by an unjust part of our past,” Kotek said. “It will not correct past mistakes, but I hope it will restore some amount of dignity and pride.”
Representative Brian Clem came on board as a co-sponsor and his wife, Carol Suzuki, past chair of the Oregon Commission on Asian Affairs and a third generation Japanese-American, testified in favor of the bill at the legislative hearing.
Suzuki’s father, grandparents and aunt were all sent to internment camps.
Although her late father would not be affected directly by the bill, Suzuki is passionate about its purpose and inspired by the “collective experience” of the internees.
“It’s like closing the loop,” she said. “Being able to do something legislatively that acknowledges something really horrible that was done to these people. It’s to correct a wrong – in this case, before it’s too late.”
The bill means a great deal to Suzuki, who said her alma mater Willamette University’s school quote, “Not unto ourselves alone are we born” encapsulates her feelings.
“You try to do things beyond yourself,” she said. “There’s also the hope that we don’t repeat the same mistakes.”
This year also marks the 65th anniversary of the United States Military’s forcible removal and relocation of 120,000 Japanese-Americans.
With such backing, the proposal sailed through the House.
“It’s really been embraced,” Fischer said. “It’s something that really anybody can get on board with, and a lot of people have been supporting it.”
Suzuki said she was surprised by the unexpectedly high level of attention the bill has received.
Achieving the ‘impossible’
After spending some time in New York, Sumida returned to Oregon for her sister’s wedding. She never went back.
Instead, Sumida got a job at Providence Hospital in Portland, where she worked for 30 years. Then, in 1976, Sumida got her bachelor of arts degree from Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore.
“All of us that went to school – we had a goal,” Sumida said. “We wanted to get a degree. I don’t know how many finished school. Some of them never went back to school after (being interned).”
Sumida said that although she would accept her honorary degree, she feels like she should have to work for it. Because she was only a freshman when she was pulled out of school, she thinks she didn’t do enough to earn a degree from the University.
“I feel honored that they’re offering this to us,” she said, “but at the same time I feel I shouldn’t just be handed this honor. I have the feeling that I should do something more.”
Sumida tried to go back to Eugene; before enrolling at Linfield she contacted the University and inquired about returning to school there. She was told that her credit situation needed to be sorted out so she could receive credit for the work she did at Rochester. In the meantime, she continued working at Providence while waiting for word from the University that never came.
Today, Sumida is retired from her nursing career and living in Portland. The grandmother of six said she has completely come to terms with the many obstacles she overcame. Should the bill pass as expected in the Senate, Sumida will accept her honorary degree graciously.
“It would be an honor to get it from my school – the school I had gone to and hadn’t finished,” she said. “I think this is a wonderful opportunity that they’re giving us.”
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