California to give interned Japanese Americans degrees
1 hr 11 mins ago
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – The University of California said Thursday it would bestow honorary degrees on hundreds of former students of Japanese descent who were shipped off to internment camps during World War II.
University of California directors, meeting on grim budget cuts, voted to make an exception to a longstanding policy against honorary degrees to make amends to aging Japanese Americans whose educations were cut short decades ago.
The head of the university system in the most populous US state said the step was "long overdue."
"To the surviving students themselves, and to their families, I want to say, 'This is one way to apologize to you,'" University of California president Mark Yudof said in a statement.
"It will never be possible to erase what happened, but we hope we can provide you a small measure of justice," he said.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090716/ts_alt_afp/usjapaneducationhistorywwii_20090716221043Aiko 'Grace' Obata Amemiya, left, laughs with Taye Oda while holding up a UC Berkeley shirt after speaking to the University of California Board of Regents in San Francisco, Thursday, July 16, 2009. The University of California will grant honorary degrees to hundreds of Japanese Americans whose studies at UC were interrupted when they were sent to internment camps during World War II.
(AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)