For most of the state, 11 a.m. Monday meant nothing more than the start of the week’s first lunch break.
Folks on Bainbridge Island, however, knew the hour held a much more historically important significance.
That’s because it was here, at 11 a.m., 73 years ago that 227 men, women and children — more than two–thirds of them American citizens — were forcibly removed from their homes, rounded up by Army soldiers armed with rifles and forced to board a ferry to Seattle, and from there to government camps where they lived as prisoners.
These islanders were among the first of nearly 120,000 other people of Japanese ancestry exiled from the region, the result of Executive Order 9066 issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on Feb. 19, 1942 in the wake of post-Pearl Harbor hysteria.
Survivors of the exclusion and their descendants, as well as visitors and volunteers, marked the historic anniversary earlier this week at the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, located on the site of the former Eagledale ferry dock, with a day of tours and maintenance of the site and surrounding grounds as part of a public day of commemoration.
“We picked 11 o’clock for a specific reason,” Clarence Moriwaki, former president of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association, told the gathered crowd at the appointed hour. “At 11 o’clock 73 years ago, the ferry arrived here to take away the first of 120,000 people excluded from the West Coast of the United States during World War II.”
The commemoration began with a moment of silence for the most recently departed members of the island’s Japanese American community, a list which included Frank Kitamoto, an internment survivor and long-time island historian and educator; Art Koura, a graduate of the Bainbridge High School (whose family owned the island’s largest strawberry farm) and a member of the Army’s famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team during World War II; and Fumiko Nishinaka, who became the symbol of the internment of Japanese Americans during the war after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published a photograph of her holding her baby at the Eagledale Ferry Landing during the initial round of relocation.
Moriwaki said he had expected it to rain Monday and was anxiously checking the forecast all weekend. He then laughed while looking around at the pristine spring day.
“I think some people are looking down on us today,” he said smiling.
Also in attendance at the commemoration event was Congressman Derek Kilmer, who recently worked to pass legislation officially changing the name of the historic site to better reflect the historical occurrence.
“To me, one of the most important adages is the greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting back up every time we fall,” Kilmer said. “We saw 73 years ago an example of our nation falling — falling away from its ideals of giving every person the opportunity for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“That’s why this memorial is so important,” he added. “That’s why this commemoration is so important, because of what happened here on Bainbridge Island. Not just what happened here in terms of 227 people whose own piece of the American Dream was frozen, but also what happened in the voices that spoke up against that, and who acknowledged that that was going to be a mark and a stain on our country’s history.”
Kilmer told the crowd about the memorial association’s efforts to rename the site and the resulting legislation, and he then presented a framed copy of it to Bill Nakao, the current president of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association.
The wish was to add the word “exclusion” so as to more accurately reflect what happened, Kilmer said.
“It turns out doing that actually does take an act of Congress,” he laughed. “Go figure.”
The memorial is located at 4192 Eagle Harbor Drive and is open daily from dawn to dusk.
There is currently no staff on site. Guests are welcome to enjoy the memorial at their own pace and leisure.
Visit www.bijac.org to learn more.
