Background history
History of Japanese American students at Washington University in St. Louis
Japanese American students Ted Ono, Yo Matsumato, and Richard (Dick) Henmi at Washington University, 1942 (Right). Image courtesy of the State Historical Society of Missouri/Research Center-St. Louis, taken from Washington University Archives.
During World War II, Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) was one of few universities to accept Japanese American students. WUSTL enrolled thirty Japanese American students in a variety of programs across the institution, including the College of Architecture. A direct result of the advocacy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization that fought to secure admission for Japanese American college students into a select few accepting universities, this practice would allow students who had been forced into the incarceration starting in 1942 to leave their respective camps with legal permission and to continue their education during and after the war.
"The attitude of the University is that these students, if American citizens, have exactly the same rights as other students who desire to register in the University..."
— George Throop, Chancellor of WUSTL (1927-1944)
Photograph from “Hatchet” yearbook of the Architectural Society, including students Hiroshi Kasamoto, Gyo Obata, Fred Toguehi, Robert Kiyasu, and George Matsumoto, 1943. Image courtesy of Washington University Archives.
“I later found out that they had gone to the students to find out if they would accept the Japanese American. And luckily, they said yes, the students did.”
“I got probation from [WUSTL]. So, I was able to leave [California] the night before my family was moving to camp.”
- Gyo Obata (WUSTL 45’)
Clipping from October 27, 1942 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Image courtesy of Washington University Archives.
WUSTL, the only institution involved in the American Friends Service Committee effort with a college of architecture, granted Japanese Americans Richard Henmi, Gyo Obata, George Matsumoto, and Fred Toguchi the opportunity to study architecture, laying the foundation for their highly successful careers within the field. Following their graduation, Henmi and Obata settled permanently in St. Louis, anchoring the influential firms responsible for much of the most-esteemed 20th-century architecture in the region.