World War II
August 5, 2022
100 and counting
Once self-described as shy, the sociable Yvette Gunther, '45, now enjoys dance classes and public speaking. She recounts her time at the UW during World War II.
May 29, 2022
For the next generation
After 26 years leading Densho, a nonprofit organization committed to preserving and sharing Japanese American history, executive director Tom Ikeda, ’76, ’79, ’83, is retiring
September 4, 2021
The Nisei story
‘Boys in the Boat’ author Daniel James Brown’s new book depicts the heroism of World War II-era Japanese Americans.
September 16, 2020
From war to hoops
After taking a bullet in World War II, Charles Sheaffer returned to captain the Husky basketball team in his senior season.
September 11, 2020
No longer lost
Stephen Johnson, '99, scoured archives, the internet and a villa in Italy to discover the fate of a missing World War II pilot.
February 27, 2019
War heroes of Walla Walla
A new World War II Memorial honors approximately 3,800 men and women who answered the call of duty.
December 1, 2017
A veteran’s quest
Ray Emory, the 2017 Distinguished Alumni Veteran Award recipient, has worked for decades to identify the remains of those lost at Pearl Harbor.
September 1, 2006
Revisiting Nuremberg
Whitney Harris, '33, is one of only two surviving prosecutors from the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal, and the only one who was present for the entirety of the historic trials.
March 1, 2006
Stolen years
After Pearl Harbor, as the U.S. imprisoned thousands of its own citizens in internment camps, more than 400 Japanese American students had to drop out of the UW.
December 1, 2005
Detective story
The assignment was straightforward, but it felt like mission impossible: Find out what happened to more than 400 students forced to leave the University of Washington when the federal government incarcerated Japanese Americans in 1942.
The stolen years
After Pearl Harbor, as the U.S. imprisoned thousands of its own citizens in internment camps, more than 400 Japanese American students had to drop out of the UW. This is the story of some forced to leave — and the efforts the UW made to protect them.
Well-earned salute
Every time Hiro Nishimura, ’48, passes the William Kenzo Nakamura Federal Courthouse in Seattle, he raises his hand in a salute. The courthouse was renamed four years ago to honor Nakamura, who earned the nation’s highest military award—the Medal of Honor.
June 1, 2005
Bronze Star finally comes
When Emanuel “Sonny” Marks saw a recent article announcing that certain combat veterans were still eligible for the Bronze Star, he figured there was no harm in inquiring. And that’s how he came to receive the medal in the mail on Jan. 10, more than 60 years after he earned it.
September 1, 1999
Waldo Semon dies at 100
He wasn't a government leader, or someone who cured diseases, but Waldo L. Semon, '20, '24, had a profound effect on our lives that carries on to this very day.
Against all odds
After surviving the horrors of the Holocaust, Tom Lantos got a fresh start at the UW. Now he is serving in Congress, and his story is part of an Oscar-winning film.
June 1, 1999
Green vision
A personal loss drove Jim Ellis toward a life of civic activism that made our lakes clean, our buses keen and our landscape more pristine.
December 1, 1998
Our ‘Black Sheep’
There aren't many UW alumni who win the Medal of Honor, write a best-selling book and have Robert Conrad portray them in a TV series. In fact, there is only one.
September 1, 1993
In 1943, a much more serious game came to Husky Stadium
The UW campus sustained a full-fledged amphibious landing in October 1943 as part of a war exercise.