UC Davis’ recognition ceremony for World War II-era Japanese American students has been scheduled for 10 a.m. Dec. 12 in The Pavilion at the Activities and Recreation Center.

The honorees are those students for whom World War II internment derailed their education. The UC system comprised four campuses at the time of the internment order — Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles and San Francisco — and each is organizing a ceremony in December or in the spring to award honorary degrees to the affected former students.

During the ceremonies, the campuses also plan to acknowledge former students who were interred but returned to UC to finish their degrees.

Forty-seven Japanese American students who were forced from their studies at what is now UC Davis during World War II will receive honorary degrees amid the pomp and circumstance of fall graduation.

At least three will attend to receive their long-deferred degrees in person. Family members and friends will represent others.

The honorary degree recipients and representatives will wear traditional graduation caps and gowns, as well as specially made gold satin stoles with the 1940s and current UC Davis logos in blue on either side. They will be seated in the first row of chairs on the Pavilion floor; faculty and graduating students will sit behind them.

About 325 UC Davis undergraduates will participate in the same commencement ceremony, and about 375 in an afternoon ceremony. Tickets are required.

The graduation ceremony will be carried live on the Web and later available on demand (link to the webcast from the UC Davis home page at www.ucdavis.edu).

UC: Leading protest voice

Dan Simmons, a UC Davis law professor and Academic Senate vice chair, and Judy Sakaki, UC vice president for Student Affairs and former UC Davis vice chancellor for Student Affairs, led the task force that supported the effort to award degrees at the four campuses. Sakaki’s parents and grandparents were interned.

Awarding the honorary degrees is “the right thing to do” and will provide some justice for those whose lives were altered, Simmons said.

The UC Board of Regents voted last summer to authorize the honorary degrees. About 700 students withdrew from UC in 1942 when the government ordered their internment — sending them to camps with more than 120,000 other Japanese Americans from the West Coast.

In all, about 3,500 Japanese Americans were prohibited from attending universities and colleges during the war.

At the time, many in the UC academic community criticized the internments. UC President Robert Sproul was a leading voice of protest, according to “Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians,” a 1982 U.S. congressional report.

Receiving degrees

Former students who may be eligible, their families or friends are encouraged to contact individual UC campuses about receiving honorary degrees. Even after the ceremonies, those who are eligible (or their families if the recipient has passed away) can still receive an honorary degree.

More information is available online: honorary.universityofcalifornia.edu.