Nation & World News

WWII, internment camp put graduation on hold, couple finally get diplomas

By Cox Media Group National Content Desk
June 21, 2015

Two names were missing on a list of graduates in 1943. But more than 70 years ago, a couple who had to put their future on hold during World War II, are able to finally say graduated from their first high school alma mater.

The story of George and Miko Kaihara isn't a mainstream one of lives delayed because of World War 2. The couple didn't get to graduate from Tustin Union High School in Tustin, California, because of going off to fight on the front lines. Rather, the couple, who were teenagers 72 years ago, were forced from their homes and into a Japanese-American internment camp, KABC reported.

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They were sent to Poston internment camp in Arizona, where school was taught by fellow internees. That's where they graduated from, as part of the first graduating class.
George was drafted.  Miko worked various jobs.  They finally got married in 1950, had kids and now grandchildren.
But a former classmate found out they never got their diplomas from Tustin, so he called the school and asked administrators to present the Kaihara's with their certificates.
At the age of 90, and a week before their 65th wedding anniversary, they got their diplomas, which feature, not 2015, but 1943.

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