Don Miyada Graduates From HS-72 Years After Being Locked In Japanese-American Internment Camp

Don Miyada Graduates From High School 72 Years After Being Locked In Japanese-American Internment Camp



NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A California man who missed his 1942 graduation because he was locked in an internment camp for Japanese-Americans finally walked in a cap and gown last week, more than seven decades after he was pulled out of class just a month shy of his big day.

Don Miyada, now 89, joined Newport Harbor High School's 2014 graduating class on stage and received a standing ovation when he was hailed as an inaugural member of the school's hall of fame, the Los Angeles Times reported on Sunday (http://lat.ms/Tl23iJ).

Miyada was 17 when he was sent with his family and more than 17,000 other detainees to a patch of desert land near Poston, Arizona shortly after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during World War II. A teacher later sent him a letter expressing shock that he couldn't finish high school and included a diploma — but Miyada always regretted that he missed the celebration.

In May, Miyada met Newport Harbor's principal, Sean Boulton, during a Memorial Day service at the high school and Boulton invited him to walk with the 560 seniors who would be graduating. Boulton even found a copy of the program from what would have been Miyada's graduation day in 1942.



the rest:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/22/don-miyada-graduates_n_5520437.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2665205/Graduation-heals-World-War-II-internment-wounds.html