By Nancy Treder
NAP Contributor
World War II incarcerated survivors cutting the ribbon during the opening ceremony of the visitor center at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American memorial. Photo credit: Nancy Treder.
More than 400 people, including 13 incarceration camp survivors, gathered October 11 to dedicate the new visitor center at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.
The ceremony and ribbon cutting, hosted by the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association (BIJAEMA), marked the completion of the memorial’s final major phase. The visitor center stands at the former Eagledale ferry dock, where on March 30, 1942 Bainbridge Island’s Japanese American residents became the first in the nation forcibly removed from their homes under the U.S. Executive Order 9066 and U.S. Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1. Two hundred twenty-seven Japanese and Japanese American residents were put aboard a ferry to Seattle. It was the first leg of their journey to the Manzanar incarceration camp in California. They were later transferred to the Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho.
The $6.5 million, 1,545-square-foot visitor center, designed by Seattle architect Johnpaul Jones, gives the memorial its first permanent indoor space for education, interpretation, and reflection. U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, D-WA, a longtime champion of the memorial said, “We’re here today to acknowledge the significance of the very ground we stand on and its place in American history … It is a difficult and shameful chapter but that is exactly why this site is so important … It will stand as an enduring symbol of what should never happen again.” Cantwell helped pass the 2008 legislation establishing the Minidoka National Historic Site and later added the Bainbridge Island memorial. Working with U.S. Senator Patty Murray and former U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer, Cantwell helped secure $767,000 in federal funding for the visitor center.
Bainbridge Island Mayor Clarence Moriwaki, part of the founding group that shaped the memorial’s early vision, recalled accompanying the late Fumiko Hayashida to Washington, D.C. to testify before Congress in 2006 at age 95. (Her 1942 photograph with her infant daughter on the Eagledale dock became an iconic image of the exclusion.)
Hayashida told lawmakers, “I am an old woman. I hope to live long enough to see this memorial.” Moriwaki said he noticed more than one committee member wiping away tears. The vote was unanimous. In May 2008, the memorial became a satellite unit of the National Park Service’s Minidoka National Historic Site.
Debra Grindeland, a Woodward Middle School teacher, honored her uncle, the late Frank Kitamoto. His presentations on the exclusion at schools, churches, and conferences in the 1990s helped spark the grassroots effort that became the memorial. “Today, when I look at this memorial, I see the strength, courage, and happiness that Frank described in his speech,” Grindeland said. “I am grateful that Frank’s legacy lives on in this memorial.”
In closing, BIJAEMA Executive Director Ellen Sato credited the generations of volunteers, donors, and families who carried the project forward. “I’m honored to have been given the chance to help get this across the finish line,” Sato said. “But I am acutely aware that it’s been 20-something years and hundreds of people have worked on getting this built.”
The visitor center adds indoor exhibits, interpretive videos, and touch-screen stations whose content will grow over time along with flexible space for classes and seminars. Its interpretive and exhibit work was developed with representatives of BIJAEMA, Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community, Bainbridge Island History Museum, Bainbridge Island School District, and the National Park Service.
The Visitor Center will open on a limited basis with volunteer staff in the coming weeks. Public hours will be posted at bijaema.org.
About BIJAEMA:
The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association (BIJAEMA) preserves and shares the history of the Japanese American community, honors the resilience of those who endured incarceration during World War II, celebrates the neighbors who stood by them, promotes understanding of civil liberties and constitutional rights for all Americans, and carries forward the memorial’s guiding message, Nidoto Nai Yoni — “Let It Not Happen Again.” Learn more at BIJAEMA.org.
