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Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community (BIJAC) is a non-profit organization operating on Bainbridge Island, WA. The BIJAC maintains a collection of photographs, artifacts, and oral histories focused specifically on the exclusion and internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. The BIJAC focuses directly on activities that support their mission “to preserve the history and culture of Japanese Americans of Bainbridge Island and support education and community outreach that fosters a deep appreciation for diversity, justice, and the need for vigilant protection of our civil and constitutional rights." The BIJAC is run by an Executive Board consisting of a president, vice president, treasurer and secretary and governed by a Board of Trustees consisting of seven individuals serving from the community.

Projects
The BIJAC have designed and implemented the following projects to promote their mission:

"In Defense of Our Neighbors" a book written by Mary Woodward

This 152 page book published by Fenwick Publishing documents Milly and Walt Woodward, editors of the local and still circulating newspaper The Bainbridge Review, who provided weekly coverage from the internment camps and editorially spoke out against Executive Order 9066, the only paper in the nation to do so during the war. For the book, the author, their daughter, conducted extensive interviews with Bainbridge Island Japanese Americans interned during the war and other Islanders.

Oral History Projects

In 2005 an oral history project was created by the BIJAC to document the personal stories of Japanese immigration to Bainbridge Island and WWII exclusion and return. Since then this project has recorded over forty personal histories and has been conducted in partnership between the BIJAC and the Bainbridge Community Foundation, Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Fund, Humanities Washington, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Sixteen of these interviews are hosted, archived, and publicly available through the Densho Digital Archive as part of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community Collection. The interviewees consist of Emery Brooks Andrews, Fumiko Hayashida, Frank Kitamoto, Lilly Kodama, Tats Kojima, Tatsukichi Moritani, Kazuko Nakao, Gerald, Nakata, Michiko Amatatsu Noritake, Nobuko Omoto, Taketo Omoto, Eiko Shiybayama, Zen Shibayama, Akio Suyematsu, Victor Takemoto, and Matsue Watanabe.

Traveling Photo Exhibit

In 1988 the BIJAC unveiled a pictorial history documenting 100 years of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American community. The exhibit includes over-sized historical and contemporary photographs with labels based off of historical documents and oral histories conducted by the BIJAC. The exhibit has traveled to Washington State classrooms and historical museums throughout the country. In 1993 the BIJAC Traveling Photo Exhibit was awarded the National Education Association’s Ellison S. Onizuka Award for outstanding achievement in promoting human and civil right.

Woodward Fund

In honor of Milly and Walt Woodward the BIJAC set up a memorial fund to support sound journalism and activities such as forums and other community gatherings that promote constitutional principles and community participation. Grants from the endowment fund are available to all Bainbridge Islanders.

Documentary Films

In 2009 the BIJAC completed two documentary film projects titled "Fumiko Hayashida: The Woman Behind the Symbol" and "Honor and Sacrifice: Nisei Patriots in the MIS." Both films were funded through support from the State of Washington's Education Department and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. "Fumiko Hayashida: The Woman Behind the Symbol" was originally conceived as a project for the Women’s History Consortium’s 2009-2010 Washington State Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commemoration. The film tells the story of 97 year old Fumiko Hayashida who has been called the “Nisei Rosa Parks.” This elder became the symbol of Japanese American exclusion when she was photographed with her two children as they were expelled from Bainbridge Island in 1942. The film focuses on that event and her time spent in the internment camps with her family. "Honor and Sacrifice: Nisei Patriots in the MIS" focuses on the story of Master Sergeant Roy Matsumoto, a Nisei resident from Bainbridge Island, who served as linguist with the Military Intelligence Service in Burma during World War II.

Educational Outreach

Dr. Frank Kitamoto, president of BIJAC, provides a PowerPoint presentation "White Washing Yellow Faces: Putting Human Back Into Human Rights. Lessons from the Past to Help Us Be Alive in the Present" to classrooms, civic groups, and other organizations. This PowerPoint presentation provides an overview of the Bainbridge Island experience of Americans of Japanese descent by using original photographs from the BIJAC archive on the pioneer days of the 1890s and oral histories on the internment period of World War II.

Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial
In 1998, a partnership between the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community and the North Kitsap/Bainbridge Island Interfaith Council established the Bainbridge Island WWII Nikkei Exclusion Memorial Committee. In 2000, the Memorial Committee was registered as non-profit subcommittee under the 501(c)(3) Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community. The purpose of the committee was to establish a memorial on the site of the Eagledale Ferry Landing on Bainbridge Island where on March 30, 1942 227 Bainbridge Island residents of Nikkei – or Japanese – ancestry were forcibly removed from their homes. With only a six day notice, men, women and children were gathered by armed U.S. Army soldiers and taken in military trucks to the Eagledale Ferry Landing and boarded the ferry Kehloken with only the personal items they could carry or wear. These Bainbridge Island residents were the first of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans on the U.S. west coast that were forcibly incarcerated in internment camps due to the Executive Order 9066 signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942. Bainbridge Island residents were the among the first Japanese Americans incarcerated in the Manzanar internment camp located outside Independence, California. In 1943 all but five families from Bainbridge Island community transferred to the Minidoka internment camp located outside Twin Falls, ID to be closer to family and friends from the Pacific Northwest.

In 2006 the private non-profit Bainbridge Island Japanese American Memorial (BIJAM) was formed as a 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission includes fund-raising, designing, promoting, and successful development of the memorial project. The volunteer Board of Directors consists of five officers (a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and recording secretary), thirteen board members, and seven members of an Honorary Advisory Committee. The later consists of former Washington State Governors Dan Evans, Booth Gardner, Gary Locke, Mike Lowry, Al Rossellini, and John Spellman along with former Washington Secretary of State Ralph Munro.

On May 5th, 2008 President George W. Bush officially signed into law the creation of the Bainbridge Island Nidoto Nai Yoni - or "Let It Not Happen Again" - Japanese American Memorial as a satellite unit of the Minidoka National Historic Site located in Idaho. Construction on the Bainbridge Island Nidoto Nai Yoni Japanese American Monument is divided into the following four phases:

Phase I

In 2006 the first phase of the construction consisting of boardwalks, bridges and paths in forested areas and wetlands was completed. This phase also included the construction of driving lanes, parking lots, and ponds along with a pavilion and a pair of cedar gates hand-crafted by volunteers from the Timber Framers Guild.

Phase II

On March 30, 2009 a groundbreaking ceremony was held to implement the designs of architect Johnpaul Jones and Project Manager John Buday of Cascade Crest Designs for a 272 foot long - one foot for every Japanese American individual that lived on Bainbridge Island at the beginning of World War II - stone and cedar "Story Wall." The wall is projected to be completed during the summer of 2010 by Drury Construction of Poulsbo, WA. The cost of this construction is budgeted at $473,000. An additional $300,000 has yet to be raised to design, produce and install interpretive materials for the wall. These interpretive materials are being written by a committee of the BIJAEM Board of Directors and will focus on a historic narrative on the 272 individuals expelled from Bainbridge Island on March 30, 1942.

Phase III

Phase three construction will consist of a projected $5.7 million timber-framed, environmentally designed interpretive center and meeting room complex designed by Cascade Crest Designs. Funding for this phase has yet to be secured.

Phase IV

Phase four construction will consist of a projected $900,000 150-foot "departure pier" which will represent the 150 Japanese Americans who returned to Bainbridge Island after World War II. Funding for this phase has yet to be secured.

Events
The BIJAC hosts three annual events known as the Mochi Tsuki, Nisei Lunch, and Summer Picnic. The Mochi Tsuki or "mochi making" public event is held to celebrate the Japanese New Year's tradition of gathering and eating mochi, a sweet rice treat. The Nisei Lunch is an anniversary luncheon honoring the Nisei – or second generation Japanese Americans – who were living on Bainbridge Island on February 19, 1942 when Executive Order 9066 was signed into law, a date known as the Day of Remembrance. The Summer Picnic is held annually in August at Bainbridge Island’s Battle Point Park as a community gathering and reunion event featuring BYOB, or Bring Your Own Bento.

References and Notes
1. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Mission" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

2. BIJAC News, Spring 2009

3. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "BIJAC Projects - In Defense of our Neighbors: The Walt and Milly Woodward Story, a book by Mary Woodward" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

4. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "BIJAC Projects - Oral History" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

5. Densho Digital Archives website, www.densho.org, accessed online 19 April 2010

6. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "BIJAC Projects - Traveling Photo Exhibit" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

7. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "BIJAC Projects - Woodward Fund" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

8. BIJAC News, 2008

9. BIJAC News, Winter 2009

10. BIJAC News, Winter 2009

11. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "BIJAEM MEMORIAL Introduction — Origin and Message" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

12. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Project History/Timeline" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

13. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Mission" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

14. Japanese American Internment, wikipedia article, wikipedia.org, accessed online 18 April 2010

15. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Exclusion and Internment - Manzanar and Minidoka" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

16. BIJAC News, Spring 2009

17. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Project History/Timeline" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

18. BIJAM press release, March 20, 2009

19. BIJAM press release, March 20, 2009

20. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Project History/Timeline" page, accessed online 18 April 2010

21. BIJAC News, Spring 2009

22. BIJAC News, Winter 2009

23. BIJAC News, Spring 2009

24. BIJAC News, Spring 2009

25. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Mochi Tsuki" Event page, accessed online 18 April 2010

26. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Nisei Lunch" Event page, accessed online 18 April 2010

27. Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community website, bijac.org, "Summer Picnic" Event page, accessed online 18 April 2010