The San Jose State Associated Students (A.S.) Board of Directors discussed its ongoing efforts to create two full-sized murals honoring Japanese Americans outside of Yoshihiro Uchida Hall during the Wednesday meeting in the Student Union.
The project is a collaboration with the Japanese American Citizens League, the San Jose/Silicon Valley National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and SJSU Stories for Solidarity.
A.S. President Nina Chuang said the mural is overdue since April, which was when funding by the university was approved.
Chuang said the $10,000 funding goal for the two murals was met, but the university has not followed through and no progress on installation has been made.
“The expected groundbreaking goal was supposed to be in May, but they haven't done that yet,” Chuang said during the meeting. “So we're just gonna need a follow up and make sure that the project finishes.”
SJSU was not able to comment in time for publication but the story will be updated online with its statement.
The murals aim to honor Japanese Americans who were put into internment camps in February 1942 after President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which authorized the evacuation of any persons who were deemed to be a national threat to security, a vast majority of whom were of Japanese American descent. World War II-era Executive Order 9066 remained in effect until 1946.
Uchida’s family were interred under the order at the start of WWII, while he was drafted into the army while attending SJSU as a medical technician, according to an April 6 Spartan Daily article.
The U.S. didn’t formally apologize to the Japanese American community until Feb. 19, 1976 when then-President Gerald Ford terminated the executive order and said: “We now know what we should have known then — not only was that evacuation wrong but Japanese-Americans were and are loyal Americans.”
Matthew Spadoni, graduate student and member of Campus Community Garden, said he was really glad to hear during the meeting that the board of directors intends to follow up with the university to ensure progress gets started on the mural.
“There's a lot of reconciliation and things that our campus should go through and having a public display like this with signage is the tip of the iceberg and the first step,” Spadoni said after the meeting.
Chuang said A.S. will continue to update the community through proper channels to keep the public informed about any updates on the murals.
