George Kaihara and his wife, Miko, both 90-years-old, sit before the start of the Tustin High School commencement ceremony in Tustin, California, on Thursday. George and Miko were juniors at the school when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and they were sent to Poston internment camp in Arizona. Dennis Hayden, a classmate of George and Miko from 72-years-ago, recently reconnected with them, and made it his mission to see them graduate. | AP
[size=18]**Japanese-American World War II internees in U.S. finally get high-school graduation**[/size]
AP / Jun 20, 2015
TUSTIN, CALIFORNIA – It was decades late, but George and Miko Kaihara, both 90, two Japanese-Americans who were sent to internment camps in the U.S. after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II, finally got to attend their high school graduation.
The California couple were high school juniors during the Pearl Harbor attack. The Kaiharas were in an internment camp in Arizona, behind barbed wire, when their classmates graduated 72 years ago.
On Thursday, the couple finally got their diplomas, The Orange County Register, a local newspaper, reported.
The Kaiharas, who have been married for nearly 65 years, received a standing ovation during the ceremony at their high school.
“Congratulations, George and Miko,” said Francine Scinto, an education official. “You are now members of the graduating class of 1943.”
Seventeen family members were on hand, including granddaughter Kayla Kaihara, who herself recently graduated from a nearby school.
“My grandma got to come to my graduation,” Kayla Kaihara said, “and I told her, ‘Now, I get to come to yours.”
The Kaiharas now need to find a spot in their home to hang their new diplomas.
“I want to show it off,” Miko Kaihara said.
Roughly 120,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated at 10 relocation camps after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.
Source
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/06/20/national/social-issues/japanese-american-world-war-ii-internees-u-s-finally-get-high-school-graduation/#.VYWgZFJ2Zdg
