The photo of the Japanese Trojan Club tucked into the back of the 1942 yearbook was not so different from the other pictures of young men and women about to start their futures: smiling faces with a world of hope and promise. But by the time the El Rodeo yearbook was circulated, every student of Japanese descent had been forced to abandon their studies at USC and other universities all along the West Coast.
Among them was Jiro Oishi. He was a senior studying business administration at USC when President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 — issued on Feb. 19, 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor — declared that anyone of Japanese descent was a threat to the nation. Oishi was among an estimated 120,000 Japanese immigrants and their American-born descendants who were interned for the next three years in 10 camps across the West.
After the war, he longed to rejoin his class at USC.
“He always wanted his degree to be from USC,” said Joanne Kumamoto, Oishi’s daughter.
Oishi was one of the Nisei — the generation of children born in the United States to parents who had immigrated from Japan. At the time of Roosevelt’s internment order, it’s believed there were around 120 Nisei students attending USC. Few returned to the university after the war ended. Many completed their degrees elsewhere.
In 2022, Oishi will posthumously earn his degree from USC. The university will recognize the descendants of the Nisei students at commencement in May and confer their honorary degrees at the Asian Pacific Alumni Association gala in April.
Read the full story about how USC will be honoring Nisei students posthumously at USC News.