Bainbridge Island opens visitor center at Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Bainbridge Island opened a new visitor center and plaza at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial with a ribbon-cutting this past Sunday. The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association hosted the ceremony under the motto Nidoto Nai Yoni — let it not happen again.

Remembering 276 neighbors

The memorial honors the 276 Japanese Americans who lived on the island and were forced from their homes and incarcerated during World War II. Bainbridge residents were among the first Japanese Americans removed under Executive Order 9066. Congress later recognized the site as a National Historic Site in 2008.

Executive Director Ellen Sato Faust said she was honored to help finish the visitor center after more than 20 years of work by hundreds of people. More than 400 guests came including incarceration survivors their families memorial leaders and National Park Service staff.

A senator and a mayor who pushed for the site

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell who helped secure more than $767000 in National Park Service funding spoke at the event. She called the wartime incarcerations a difficult and shameful chapter and said the site exists so future generations can learn what was done in the name of national security and see Japanese American resilience.

Bainbridge Island Mayor Clarence Moriwaki was part of the group that fought for federal recognition. He has described traveling with the late Fumiko Hayashida to testify before Congress a trip that helped win a unanimous vote for the memorial.

Open for reflection

After the ribbon-cutting guests walked the plaza and visitor center until the 4 p.m. close. Organizers say the new space is meant for school groups families and travelers who arrive by ferry to sit with the story wall and carry the warning forward: never again.