Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial stone wall

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial ( ja, ベインブリッジ島日系アメリカ人排除記念碑, ''Beinburijjitō Nikkei Amerikajin Haijo Kinenhi'') is an outdoor exhibit commemorating the internment of

Japanese American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...

s from

Bainbridge Island Bainbridge Island is a city and island in Kitsap County, Washington. It is located in Puget Sound. The population was 23,025 at the 2010 census and an estimated 25,298 in 2019, making Bainbridge Island the second largest city in Kitsap County. ...

in the state of

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It is located on the south shore of Eagle Harbor, opposite the town of

Winslow Winslow may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Winslow, Buckinghamshire, England, a market town and civil parish * Winslow Rural District, Buckinghamshire, a rural district from 1894 to 1974 United States and Canada * Rural Municipality of Winslo ...

. Administratively, it is a unit of the

Minidoka National Historic Site Minidoka National Historic Site is a National Historic Site (United States), National Historic Site in the western United States. It commemorates the more than 13,000 Japanese Americans who were imprisoned at the Minidoka War Relocation Cent ...

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

. The mission of the memorial is Nidoto Nai Yoni, “Let It Not Happen Again”.

Background

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial view from path

Japanese immigrants first came to Bainbridge Island in the 1880s, working in

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

s and strawberry harvesting, and by the 1940s had become an integral part of the island's community. Because of the island's proximity to naval bases, local Japanese Americans were the first in the whole country to be interned. 227 Japanese Americans were ordered to leave the island with six days' notice. They departed by ferry on March 30, 1942. The island had a total of 276 Japanese American residents at the time; those who were away from the island at the time due to study, military service, or other business were not permitted to return. Most internees were sent to

Manzanar Manzanar is the site of one of ten American concentration camps, where more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II from March 1942 to November 1945. Although it had over 10,000 inmates at its peak, it was one ...

, California, though some were later transferred to Minidoka, Idaho. Local newspapers such as '' The Bainbridge Review'' (made famous by the novel and film ''

Snow Falling on Cedars ''Snow Falling on Cedars'' is a 1994 novel by David Guterson. Guterson, a teacher, wrote the book in the early morning hours over ten years then quit his job to write full-time. Plot Set on the fictional San Piedro Island in the Strait of Jua ...

'') spoke out against the internment and continued to publish correspondence from internees. A ''

Seattle Post-Intelligencer The ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'' (popularly known as the ''Seattle P-I'', the ''Post-Intelligencer'', or simply the ''P-I'') is an online newspaper and former print newspaper based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The newspaper was foun ...

'' photograph of Bainbridge Island resident Fumiko Hayashida and her 13-month-old daughter preparing to board the ferry that day became famous as a symbol of the internment.Foo, Elaine (2014-11-15
"Fumiko Hayashida dies at 103; among first Japanese American internees"
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' retrieved 2014-11-17 150 returned to the island after the end of World War II. By 2011, about 90 survivors remained, of whom 20 still lived on the island.

The facility

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial cedar wall

The organizing group behind the facility, the Bainbridge Japanese American Community, planned to build a $9 million facility with a pier and interpretive center, next to

Pritchard Park Pritchard Park is a former Superfund environmental cleanup site on the shore of Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor in Washington state. The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial is within the park. History The Pacific Creosoting ...

and the former Bainbridge Island ferry terminal. Congress voted to include the memorial in the Minidoka National Historic Site in May 2008 as part of the

Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 The Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008 (; CNRA) was an act passed in the 110th United States Congress and enacted on May 8, 2008. Legislative history The bill was introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, a Democrat and the ch ...

. By March 2009, memorial organizers had raised $2.7 million of funding. The first part of the memorial to be constructed was an outdoor cedar "story wall" with the names of all 276 Japanese Americans resident on the island at the time. The

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

ceremony for the wall was held on March 30, 2009, the 67th anniversary of the internment. Fumiko Hayashida (then 98), the oldest surviving internee, spoke at the ceremony. The wall was designed by local architect Johnpaul Jones, an American Indian and the principal of

Jones and Jones Architects Grant Richard Jones (August 29, 1938 – June 21, 2021) is an American landscape architect, poet, and founding principal of the Seattle firm Jones & Jones Architects, Landscape Architects and Planners. In more than four decades of practice, his wor ...

. Jones also worked on landscape architecture in the vicinity of the memorial; he aimed for

natural landscaping Natural landscaping, also called native gardening, is the use of native plants and adapted species, including trees, shrubs, groundcover, and grasses which are local to the geographic area of the garden. Benefits Maintenance Natural land ...

, planting native species including sword fern,

mahonia ''Mahonia'' is a genus of approximately 70 species of evergreen shrubs and, rarely, small trees in the family Berberidaceae, native to eastern Asia, the Himalaya, North and Central America. They are closely related to the genus ''Berberis'' and ...

salal ''Gaultheria shallon'' is an evergreen shrub in the heather family (Ericaceae), native to western North America. In English, it is known as salal, shallon, or (mainly in Britain) gaultheria. Description ''Gaultheria shallon'' is tall, spra ...

, and

shore pine ''Pinus contorta'', with the common names lodgepole pine and shore pine, and also known as twisted pine, and contorta pine, is a common tree in western North America. It is common near the ocean shore and in dry montane forests to the subalpine ...

. Local artist Steve Gardner created

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

s to be placed on the wall, depicting some of the scenes of residents being herded onto the ferries; he stated that the project "sucked me in in a way I hadn't thought about. This really is a story about American citizens." The memorial was opened to the public on July 30, 2011.

References

External links

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
(BIJAEMA) official website
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community
(BIJAC)
Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
Introduction, from BIJAC's website
Bainbridge Island - Japanese Memorial & Museum
Exploring Bainbridge: Map, Tips & Information, Japanese-City {{Coord, 47.615298, -122.510194, display=title Bainbridge Island, Washington Buildings and structures in Kitsap County, Washington History of Kitsap County, Washington Internment of Japanese Americans Japanese-American memorials Japanese-American culture in Washington (state) Tourist attractions in Kitsap County, Washington

Background

The facility

See also

References

External links