It was hard to get into Harvard or Yale, especially from behind the barbed wire.
May 29, 1942: Japanese American students formed the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council to fight for their education.
After Pearl Harbor, thousands of Japanese American students saw their futures suddenly thrown into doubt. Some were already enrolled in college. Others were preparing to begin. Many had the grades, ambition, and ability to attend some of the best universities in the country.
But Executive Order 9066 changed everything.
As Japanese Americans were forced from their homes and sent to government concentration camps, students faced an impossible question:
How do you continue your education from behind barbed wire?
For many, the answer came through the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council.
The attack on Pearl Harbor changed the course of history in a single morning. For thousands of Japanese American students, it also changed the course of their education.
Courtesy of U.S. National Archives and Records Administration
Students continued attending classes behind barbed wire, often with limited books, supplies, and opportunities. Education gave possibility to a future beyond the camps.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
The National Japanese American Student Relocation Council was powered by a small staff with a big mission: helping Japanese American students get to college classrooms.
Courtesy of AFSC Archives
For many, college meant more than classes and degrees. They were expected to serve as living rebuttals to the prejudice that had put them behind barbed wire in the first place.
NJASRC
Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, the NJASRC worked with students, families, colleges, churches, foundations, and government agencies to help Japanese American students leave camp and continue their education. It was not a simple process. Students had to be cleared for release. Colleges had to agree to accept them. Communities had to be willing to receive them.
And the students knew they would be watched closely.
Many were expected to serve as “ambassadors of good will,” proving through their conduct, grades, and character that Japanese Americans were loyal Americans. It was an unfair burden. But many accepted it, not only for themselves, but for the possibility that their success might open doors for others still imprisoned.
The work was slow and difficult.
More Than 4,000 Students at 600 Colleges
Some officials helped. Others resisted. Some teachers and administrators inside the camps discouraged students from applying. Military rules changed. College restrictions shifted. Money had to be raised. Scholarships had to be found. Families had to decide whether to send their children into unknown communities far from home.
But the students kept going.
So did the council.
By the end of the war, the NJASRC had helped more than 4,000 Japanese American students resettle at more than 600 colleges and universities across the Midwest and East Coast.
By August 1944, restrictions had been lifted at universities including the University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Yale, and Harvard.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Students at the University of Connecticut, August 1944. More than 4,000 students eventually found their way to over 600 colleges and universities across the country.
Courtesy of Occidental College Library
Chiyeko Juliet Fukuoka’s story was one of thousands made possible by NJASRC, which helped more than 4,000 Japanese American students continue their education during WWII.
Courtesy of Museum of Ventura County
Nao Takasugi was forced to leave UCLA during the war. With help from the NJASRC, he returned to school and later built a distinguished career in public service.
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley
Yoshiko Uchida graduated from Smith College in 1944. She later used her writing to help generations understand the Japanese American incarceration experience.
Education Mattered
For the students who left camp, education became more than a path to a degree. It became a way to reclaim a future the government had tried to interrupt.
They had been removed from their homes. They had been locked away from their communities. They had been told where they could live, where they could travel, and whether they could study.
But they refused to let incarceration decide the rest of their lives.
The NJASRC closed in 1946, but its legacy continued. Decades later, former Nisei students helped create the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund, offering scholarships to Southeast Asian refugee students as an act of ongaeshi, returning kindness they had once received.