Interned Japanese eligible for degrees Daily Pilot - Serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California

Daily Pilot - Serving Newport Beach  Costa Mesa, California

Interned Japanese eligible for degrees

If you’re a Japanese American who was sent off to an internment camp while World War II played out, you could now qualify for an honorary degree from a state university or University of California campus, and any of the community colleges in California, including Orange Coast College and UC Irvine.

The special program is part of a state Assembly bill signed into law last fall by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The monumental task of finding some of these former prisoners, many of whom are in their 80s and 90s, is beginning to take shape statewide.

The program intends to rectify the educational gaps that Japanese internees suffered through their wartime relocation and imprisonment at internment camps scattered in remote locations around California and other Western states.