The California State University has announced an Honorary Nisei Committee of prominent Californians supporting the CSU effort to find Japanese-American students from 1941-42 whose college education was disrupted when they were sent to internment camps.
California State University, Fresno is one of six CSU campuses where Japanese-American students were enrolled just after the Pearl Harbor attack that launched United States involvement in World War II. There were 88 students at Fresno State when an executive order was issued sending them and their families into detention camps, interrupting their academic careers.
The search for the former students was begun so they may receive Special Honorary Bachelor of Humane Letters degrees as part of the CSU’s Nisei Diploma Project. Fresno State already has awarded one such degree and plans to confer many more on May 20 in a special commencement ceremony on campus.
To raise the visibility of the search, especially in the Japanese-American community, the CSU Chancellor’s Office formed the honorary committee, which includes two Fresno State alumnae: Dr. Joan Otomo-Corgel, a periodontist and CSU trustee emeritus, whose father received his degree Dec. 24, and Jan Yanehiro, an award-winning San Francisco Bay Area broadcaster.
Both are Fresno State Alumni Top Dog Award winners: Yanehiro in 2001 from the College of Arts and Humanities and Otomo-Corgel in 2007 from the College of Science and Mathematics.
Fresno State and the entire CSU are enlisting the help of the public and of several Japanese-American cultural organizations in locating the alumni or their families, who are eligible to accept a diploma if the honoree is deceased.
The CSU has launched a Web site at www.calstate.edu/nisei/ to help in the search and provide application forms.
Fresno State encourages people with contact information for Japanese-American alumni eligible for honorary degrees to fill out the application or contact Dr. Paul Oliaro, vice president for Student Affairs, at 559.278.2541 orpoliaro@csufresno.edu.
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