Cantwell Helps Dedicate New Visitor Center & Plaza at Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

Cantwell Helps Dedicate New Visitor Center & Plaza at Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial

In 1942, 227 Japanese Americans living on Bainbridge Island were the first Americans to be forcibly removed & interned during WWII; In 2008, Congress passed Cantwell's legislation designating location as a National Historical Site; Sunday's ceremony marks the final stage in a decades-long project to complete the memorial site

BAINBRIDGE, WA - Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined survivors of Japanese American internment, members of their families, leaders of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association (BIJAEMA), and members of the National Parks Service for a dedication ceremony of a new visitor center and plaza at the memorial.

"A difficult and shameful chapter, but that is exactly why this site is so important -- it serves to acknowledge and memorialize the wrongs committed here in the name of national security, and to help educate future generations. It will stand as an enduring symbol of what should never happen again," Sen. Cantwell said.

"On this very site, March 30th, 1942, American citizens of Japanese descent were stripped of their civil liberties, stripped of their property, stripped of their community, and their freedoms, based on nothing more than their heritage and appearance. It [was] a clear violation of their constitutional rights and our values as Americans," she continued. "We see the same injustices being implied in immigration policy and federal policies that target and exclude based on heritage and appearance. So, today's [new] visitor center and the exhibition will remind all of us that exclusion is wrong. It will explain what happened here, and commit to never letting it happen again."

Bainbridge was the first internment site nationwide where Japanese Americans were forcibly removed and incarcerated under President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II. On March 20, 1942, 277 Japanese Americans were gathered on the Eagledale Ferry Dock to be sent to Manzanar Relocation Center in California and later Minidoka Relocation Center in Idaho. In all, 12,892 residents from Washington state were sent to detainment camps.

In 2006, Sen. Cantwell and then-Representative Jay Inslee (D, WA-01) spearheaded legislation that granted National Historical Site status to the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial. This legislation was signed into law in 2008.

In 2010, Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Inslee visited the memorial for a tour and to celebrate a $183,000 National Park Service grant they helped secure that year for the memorial's education wall.

Between 2022 and 2023, Sen. Cantwell helped secure $767,102 in National Park Service funding through the Japanese American Confinement Sites grant program to help complete the Visitor Center. The new Visitor Center represents the final major phase of the Memorial's more than two-decade development.

The center includes permanent interpretive exhibits, historic artifacts, educational space accommodating up to 75 participants, an outdoor amphitheater and plaza, and improved accessibility.

Video of today's entire event is HERE; video of Sen. Cantwell's remarks is HERE; photos are HERE; and a transcript of Sen. Cantwell's remarks is HERE.