MEMORIAL BLESSING & DEDICATION

Words in languages not usually heard on Bainbridge Island filled the air at the former Eagledale ferry landing on the morning of March 30, 2006. Prayers in Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese and Native American were accompanied by the sounds of drums and bells, and even the unfamiliar gestures of a purification ceremony by a Shinto priest, as representatives of a half-dozen religious and tribal organizations joined to bless the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial on the 64th anniversary of the first exclusion of Japanese Americans in WWII.

Several hundred people attended the ceremony that consecrated and dedicated the land prior to construction of the first phase of the project, known as “Nidoto Nai Yoni – Let It Not Happen Again” memorial. The construction itself was initiated a few days later, on Monday, April 3.

Leading off the speakers at the dedication event was Donna Mohr, president of the Bainbridge Island/North Kitsap Interfaith Council , the organization that seven years ago initially proposed creating a memorial to honor the first Americans of Japanese ancestry to be forcibly removed from their homes and displaced to internment camps or, as they are more rightly known, concentration camps.

Other distinguished speakers included:

• Rev. Brooks Andrews of the Japanese Baptist Chuch

• Gilberto Perez of the Bainbridge Island Buddhist Temple

• Hisham Farajallah, president of the Islamic Center of Washington

• Rabbi Mark Gickman of the Kol Shalom congregation

• Koishi Barrish, Shinto priest of the Tsubaki Grand Shrine and Tsubaki Kannagara Jinga

• Jim Pratt, Suquamish Tribal Elder and the last living great-great-grandson of Chief Selth (Seattle).

Clarence Moriwaki, who chairs the BIJAC committee in charge of the memorial, served as emcee at the event. As he noted, the $5 million memorial project has to date raised more than $2.1 million – $1.1 million for development and $1 million for land. He also announced that the National Parks Service has completed a two-year study that could lead to the memorial becoming a satellite unit of the National Parks System.

A scale model of the site, and a mock-up of the proposed tribute wall, shared the stage which was backed by a beautiful handmade quilt, donated to the memorial by the Bainbridge Island Women’s Club. It is, said Moriwaki, symbolic of the “healing” that is part of the memorial’s main objectives: History, Honor, Healing. Plans are being discussed to auction the valuable quilt to raise money for the memorial.

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