Lawmakers OK internee degrees

OLYMPIA – The Washington state Legislature has passed a measure that allows honorary degrees to be granted to students who were ordered into internment camps during World War II. The measure was approved unanimously by the House Sunday and now goes to the governor. The Senate passed the measure earlier this month. The degrees may be conferred by state universities or colleges upon people who were students at those institutions in 1942 but did not graduate because they were ordered into a camp. An honorary degree may also be requested by a representative of a deceased person who meets these conditions. Most of the Americans who were incarcerated in the camps throughout the United States during that time were of Japanese ancestry.