photo by Mike Murase.
[reprinted from the NSRCF newsletter, vol. 33, Fall 2025]
During these uncertain times it’s good to reintroduce the Fund’s motto -“Commemorate the Past - Educate for the Future.”
In “commemorating the past” the NSRCF honors the courageous people of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (Council) who stood up and opposed the unjust forced removal and incarceration of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. The Council, led by the Quakers, worked tirelessly to help nearly 5,000 young Nisei students leave the concentration camps to go to college.
Fast forward 83 years, on March 15, 2025 the Alien Enemies Act is invoked and used to round up and deport Venezuelan migrants. No charges. No due process. Prior to that, the Act had only been used three times: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II.
Immediately following Pearl Harbor President Franklin Roosevelt invoked the Act. Within hours, Japanese immigrants were arrested as “enemy aliens.” That roundup was the trial run for the full-scale exclusion of the Japanese from the West Coast two months later when Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19, 1942.
The first Japanese forcibly removed were living on Terminal Island near Long Beach, California. In June of this year, Terminal Island became an ICE staging area for the immigration sweeps in Los Angeles. The largest ICE detention camp, costing $1.2 billion, opened at Fort Bliss, Texas to hold 5,000 detainees. In 1942, the Fort Bliss Enemy Alien Detention Station confined first-generation Japanese immigrants, the Issei.
History is repeating itself. This is why in awarding scholarships every year we make sure to tell what happened to the Japanese Americans during World War II. Racism, xenophobia, white supremacy, economic greed, and weak political leadership led directly to their imprisonment. At the same time we underscore that there were people who did not stand silently by. The Council’s collective activism during a dark and frightening time in our history was extraordinary.
Recipient of the Council’s work, former NSRCF president and board member, Ryozo Glenn Kumekawa, wrote in 2010, “To commemorate that effort is to honor those who dared to help students from a populace deemed to be “disloyal” and a “threat.” It commemorates the very best values of our society for fair play and justice. But most of all, it is the affirmation of our worth in an atmosphere of rejection, suspicion and outright hostility that remains the singular legacy of the Council’s aid extended to us.”
Second, we say “educate for the future” because we recognize the crucial importance of a college education, not only for the students but for their families, communities and society as a whole. We also recognize that access to getting one is not equal. The COVID pandemic, rising costs, family obligations, language, race, cultural, and economic barriers can all stand in the way.
The death of affirmative action was egregious but then the 2024 election happened. Attacks began immediately on universities’ research funding and their nonprofit status, cancellation of student visas, deportations, calling in student loan debt, banning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and policies, and targeting race-based scholarships.
Despite furious attempts to threaten, frighten, delete, and erase Asian Americans, our history, and our accomplishments, we are still here. And on the occasion of the NSRCF’s 45th anniversary, we recommit, reaffirm, and rededicate ourselves. In the spirit of ongaeshi, to repay a kindness, we move forward.
Since its inception the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund has been proud to join with others committed to extending the benefits of higher education to all Americans. The decisions by the Supreme Court in the University of North Carolina and Harvard admissions cases have dealt a major blow to those dedicated to advancing that goal.
The NSRC Fund condemns the efforts of anyone – Supreme Court Justices, political leaders, and fellow citizens – who would stand in the way of programs and policies that take into account the totality of a college applicant’s life and experience, including their race. Japanese Americans are fully aware of how racism has historically led to their exclusion from their country. We recognize as well that access to higher education is critical to fighting the oppression that they and others burdened by racism have suffered.
The foundation of the Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund goes back to World War II when Japanese Americans were imprisoned due to their race and thus were prevented from attending college. A group of private citizens organized under the banner of the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council (NJASRC) were able to convince the U.S. government that internees who were interested in attending colleges outside of the West Coast could with the Council’s assistance go to college. The NSRCF recognizes that when Japanese Americans were completely denied the opportunity to attend college, others stood up for them. Today, as people of color in the U.S. are denied equal opportunities to attend college, it is our responsibility to stand with them.
The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down President Biden’s program to ease the burden of student debt adds even more to the obstacles of those who wish to pursue higher education. It is precisely because of our recognition that the costs of college must be lessened that the NSRC Fund was established.
While policymakers, legal experts, and activists continue to consider the full implications of the Supreme Court’s decisions, there is no doubt that the path to full inclusion and equity regardless of race has been made more difficult through the attack on the use of race as a consideration in admissions decisions, and by the Court’s action to curtail efforts to respond to the debilitating costs of higher education. As Justice Jackson stated so clearly in her dissent in the UNC case, “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
We want to assure all those who support our efforts to fight against this latest attack on people of color that we will not abandon the struggle.
