Sixty-six years is a long time to wait to for an apology, but it’s better late than never.  The University of Oregon issued honorary-degrees to twenty Japanese-American students forced to leave in 1942.  They were issued warnings from the government to vacate the area or be corralled into internment camps.  Sophomore business student Sam Naito had just paid his spring tuition when he heard that he must drop everything and move.

Naito:  “It was highly emotional and worrisome time, it was just horrible.  I was very fortunate to have relatives in Salt Lake City, but the majority of the Japanese American citizens were placed in concentration camps because they really didn’t have any place to go.”

Over 110,000 Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans were interned during the Second World War, under an executive order from President Franklin Roosevelt.  During the late eighties and early nineties, the government issued one point six billion dollars in restitution--twenty-thousand dollars to each internee, including Naito.  But the University didn’t made amends until last Sunday.

At eighty-six, Naito says he appreciates the recognition after all this time, but that it was hard to emote anything at the ceremony.

Naito:  “One has gone through so much in life, like I have, you don’t get that emotional about it, but I did feel very good about the fact that I was being honored.”

After the war Naito, returned to his home in Portland and began his own business.  Today he is C.E.O. of Naito corporation, which leases office buildings, and president of the made in Oregon stores.  A major street in Portland is named after his father.