Bryan Eya represented his father, Keiso Eya, at the Dec. 12 commencement.

Cheng Saechao/UC Davis

Degrees of Justice appeared in UC Davis Magazine's spring issue. Here are the links to the main article and two companion pieces.

Degrees of Justice: Shortly after the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the relocation of about 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in the Western U.S. Nearly seven decades later, UC Davis awarded honorary degrees to 47 former Aggie students whose education was cut short.

UC protested the internments: When the government sent Japanese Americans to the camps, many in the UC academic community objected.

The search for honorees: The UC regents’ vote last summer to grant the honorary degrees launched a massive search for former Japanese American students, most of whom are well into their 80s and 90s. A number of faculty, staff and administrators with ties to UC Davis played a part in awarding the honorary degrees to these former students.