“DEEMED INADVISABLE”:
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO’S WARTIME JAPANESE AMERICAN BAN
AND CHICAGO'S SOUTH SIDE NIKKEI COMMUNITY
In June 1942, University of Chicago President Robert M. Hutchins found that it was “deemed inadvisable” to admit Japanese Americans as it might threaten the university’s war contracts. Over the protests of faculty and community members such as Professor McKeon, the university denied admission to dozens of Japanese Americans throughout the war, just as thousands of Japanese American refugees moved to Chicago, many to Hyde Park and the South Side. These refugees, neither white or black, confounded Chicago’s institutionalized segregation creating semi-integrated communities.
Presenting this forgotten history of exclusion alongside a panel of South Side Japanese Americans sharing their lived experiences, this event explores the legacy of the university’s exclusion utilizing the Library’s archival collections and cultivates the Chicago Japanese American story.
DATE: THURSDAY, MARCH 7TH
TIME: 3:00 PM
VENUE: Joseph Regenstein Library, Room 122
While attendance is FREE, registration is REQUIRED. Click here to submit your RSVP!
This event is sponsored by the University of Chicago Library, the Committee on Japanese Studies at the Center for East Asian Studies, and a community engagement grant by the Office of the Provost.