Some 440 Japanese Americans will receive honorary baccalaureate degrees from the University of Washington after being held in internment camps during World War II, an article in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.
Regents of the university voted to award honorary degrees to students who were forced to leave the university in the 1940s because of President Roosevelt’s executive order to send 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps.
A series of articles that ran two years ago in the university’s alumni magazine, Columns, detailed the story of the interned students and raised awareness about the issue. These articles played a part in the regents’ decision to award the degrees, UW spokesman Bob Roseth said.
Although the university isn’t sure how many of the students are still alive they will hold a ceremony in their honor in May.
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