Internment memorial helps healing on Bainbridge Island

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND -- The beat of taiko drums reverberated along the south shore of Eagle Harbor on Friday morning, marking the 65th anniversary of the removal of Japanese Americans living here as the United States entered World War II.

		Andy Rogers / P-I
	Jan Buday, left, and Karen Matsumoto carry strings of cranes to hang during a commemoration ceremony Friday at the new Nidoto Nai Yoni Memorial on Bainbridge Island. John Buday, behind, designed parts of the memorial, which recognizes the Japanese Americans taken to internment camps in 1942.

Fittingly, two bald eagles, the symbol of liberty, circled above.

The denial of civil liberties for 227 island residents, the first of more than 110,000 people of Japanese descent on the West Coast to be sent to internment camps in the months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, was remembered in a ceremony attended by former internees, ex-governors, veterans and community members.

The ceremony also served as a celebration of efforts to create a memorial on the site of the former Eagledale ferry dock, where internees were taken from the island on six days' notice with only what they could wear or carry.

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 419-0 in favor of a bill sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., to give national park status to the 8-acre site. The legislation, which would make the site a satellite of the Minidoka Internment National Monument in Idaho, is expected to be approved in the Senate.

The Nidoto Nai Yoni Memorial -- Japanese for "let it not happen again" -- so far features trails, footbridges, gates and an informational pavilion. Construction on a 272-foot "story wall" will begin later this year, with an interpretive center and pier planned in future phases.

"We don't sit in judgment of the past but in inspiration of the future," Inslee said.

That so many supporters are not of Japanese ancestry speaks to the changes in attitudes over the decades, said Lilly Kodama, who was only 7 when her family was removed.

"It couldn't have started without the support of the greater community," she said after the ceremony. "That's what's so meaningful. Only in America could you put up a memorial to something that was wrong."

Her aunt, Fumiko Hayashida, 96, the oldest survivor of the island's internees, testified to Congress in support of the House legislation in September.

Hayashida, leaning on her cane Friday but otherwise looking sprightly, marveled that the project is under way.

"I thought nobody cared," she said. "I'm very happy. I hope I live to see it done."

A string of speakers, including islanders who witnessed the removal of their friends on March 30, 1942, spoke to an audience of about 200 people.

"I stood right up here and watched the boat take off," recalled Earl Hansen, who said soldiers prevented well-wishers from saying personal goodbyes.

Walt and Millie Woodward editorialized against the internment and supported the Japanese American community in their weekly newspaper, the Bainbridge Review. The memorial is "exactly the kind of effort my parents spent all those years championing," said their daughter Mary.

About $2.6 million has been secured for the project so far, with nearly $2 million from the state. The project will cost more than $5 million.

Future federal and state allocations are expected, with a capital campaign launched to cover the rest, said Clarence Moriwaki, who heads the memorial planning committee.

"Time can heal," he said as the ceremony concluded. "But we can never forget."

LEARN MORE

For more information on the Bainbridge Island memorial to Japanese Americans interned during World War II, go to bijac.org.