Giving with Gratitude: The Nisei Student Relocation Commemorative Fund

“They were at a picnic in New Hampshire,” says Jean Hibino. Her Nisei parents were UC Berkeley students during World War II, and though they were imprisoned at Tanforan and then Topaz, their time in camp was brief. Thanks to the National Japanese American Student Relocation Council, which operated from 1942 to 1946, Hibino’s parents and close to 3600 other Nisei college students were able to leave camp in order to finish their college education, many in the Midwest and on the East Coast. Eventually the Hibinos found “other Japanese American expats” on the East Coast, as Hibino calls ...