Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial: Part 7

U.S. Representative Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) is sponsoring a bill that would designate a memorial for Japanese Americans interned during World War II as a national park. This week the House Resources Committee will hold hearings on this and other bills.

Clarence Moriwaki, who chairs the BIJAC committee in charge of the Memorial, will accompany Fumiko Hayashida, who will testify on Thursday, Sept. 28, on behalf of the bill. She is 95 years old and the oldest living survivor of the first group of Japanese Americans taken to internment camps in World War II.

According to Clarence Moriwaki, "She is also the iconic subject of the image of the mother holding her child that we and so many other historical places use to represent the internment, including the Smithsonian Institution."

Photo credit: Courtesy of Museum of History and Industry © Smithsonian Institution. Caption: Fumiko Hayashida with young daughter Natalie, en route to internment. Bainbridge Island, March 30, 1942. Website: http://americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/collection/image.asp?ID=765

Below is a link to a recent NPR report, plus a link to her testimony and the Press Release about the hearings.

Remembering Internment: An NPR Report

SEATTLE, WA (2006-09-21) A memorial on Bainbridge Island to honor Japanese Americans who were sent to internment camps during World War II could become part of the National Parks system. Congress will hold a hearing on the proposal next week. KPLU's Paula Wissel reports.

Visit this link for the full story: http://publicbroadcasting.net/kplu/news/content/970899.html

Click Here
To Read the Complete Testimony of Fumiko Hayashida

MEDIA RELEASE
Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2006

Contact: Christine Hanson 202-226-7040

Hearing Set for Inslee's Bainbridge Memorial Bill
Committee Vote Likely to Follow

WASHINGTON - The House Resources Committee today announced it will hold hearings next Thursday, Sept. 28, on a dozen bills, including one authored by panel member U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D- Wash.) that would designate a memorial for Japanese Americans interned during World War II as a national park.

Located at the former Eagledale Ferry Dock in Bainbridge Island, Wash., the memorial marks the site from which the first Japanese Americans in the nation were sent to internment camps in 1942 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 and Civilian Exclusion Order No. 1. These 227 Bainbridge residents initially were taken to the Manzanar Relocation Center in California and then transferred to the Minidoka Relocation Center in 1943.

“Our community has moved mountains to make the memorial a reality and Congress is taking notice,” said Inslee, who lives on the island just west of Seattle and won nine new supporters of his bill since last week. “We still have hard work ahead of us to get park designation, but our chances improve as more members learn the story of this historic site.”

On July 17, Inslee filed his Bainbridge Island National Monument Act, H.R. 5817, with U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). It would codify into law the results of an Interior Department study released this May by making the Bainbridge location a satellite site of the Minidoka Internment National Monument, which is in Simpson's congressional district. Last Friday, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) introduced the same legislation in the Senate.

After the House Resources Committee hearing on Inslee's legislation, the bill likely will be slated for additional scrutiny and a vote by the panel during a session scheduled for the last week of September. The panel also could release the bill in its current form for consideration on the House floor.

To read the text of the Inslee-Simpson bill, visit: www.house.gov/inslee/docs/pdfs/ eagledale_dock_legislation_july_2006.pdf