WATSONVILLE -- At 90 years old and nearly 70 years after she attended college, Watsonville resident Eiko Sakaguchi was awarded an honorary degree from Santa Rosa Junior College diploma.
She attended only one semester of college and her departure from school wasn't by choice.
Sakaguchi, a Japanese-American, has not attended the college since 1942, when her family was forced to move to an internment camp or to evacuate the Pacific Coast.
This mandate followed the December 1941 Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, after which many Japanese-American families found themselves the object of discrimination and scrutiny.
"I was excited, of course," Sakaguchi said about hearing the news that she would be awarded a degree.
However, it didn't come without a flood of painful memories. Sakaguchi was presented her honorary degree to a standing ovation in front of her friends, family and other graduates on May 28. Yet many of her classmates were not with her.
While honored, Sakaguchi was also surprised. "I was kinda wondering what for," she said of the honorary degree. She never returned to the school, and was surprised that she was awarded a degree.
Sakaguchi was among 11 other Japanese-Americans given an honorary degree at the Santa Rosa Junior College commencement ceremony. However, she was the only surviving former student attending the ceremony.
Sakaguchi received her diploma as a result of the California Nisei
College Diploma Project, which seeks to award degrees to those unable to finish their education because they were displaced by internment camps or evacuation following the start of World War II.
Sakaguchi said that because she was married and had children by the time her family was allowed to return to school, going back was not an option. "I was planning on going back to school, but my parents had arranged a marriage for me, and I had children when I came back to California."
Sakaguchi followed the wishes of her parents with the arranged marriage. "Well, I didn't like it, but it was our culture back then." Sakaguchi said. "I was the oldest daughter and couldn't go against my parents." She also pointed out her age as being a factor. "You know, you were an old-maid back then if you weren't married by 21."
Although she followed her parents' marriage plan for her, she was non-traditional in that she was one of only a handful of women attending Santa Rosa Junior College at the time.
"I had one high school English teacher who encouraged me to go to college, so I decided I would like to go." she said. Sakaguchi took classes in history, math and English.
Attending college came at a price. "My high school teacher told me I could work through college, which is what I did." She said she worked as a nanny while attending classes.
Although it was difficult commuting to school, going to class, and working at the same time, the following years would bring much greater hardship.
Sakaguchi left Santa Rosa Junior College in 1942 when the United States government decided that Japanese-Americans residents posed a security risk.
The only way out of internment was evacuation to a part of the country not considered an "invasion zone," or an area was vulnerable to attack by the Japanese.
According to Sakaguchi, the government gave Japanese residents one week to leave the area and those unable to do so within that time period were taken to internment camps. "We knew families who had nowhere to go that were forced into internment camps," she said.
Although her father's decision to move the family to Brigham City, Utah, saved the family from internment, life there was difficult.
When her family finally arrived in Utah, it was without shelter or means of support.
One of the families had a contact in Utah, who was able to house the families in an abandoned building until they were able to find work. "We all went to the building and took a spot on the floor to sleep" she explained.
It was in Utah that her family met Shioki Sakaguchi, the man they decided their daughter would marry. They were married in 1943.
In 1956, Sakaguchi and her husband moved to Watsonville.
She lives in Watsonville and continues an active lifestyle. She works from her home as a seamstress and uses a room in her home as a fitting room for customers.
To watch a video of Watsonville's Eiko Sakaguchi receiving at honorary diploma from Santa Rosa Junior College, go to
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