March 30, 2022 marks the 80th anniversary of the forced exclusion of Bainbridge Island’s Japanese Americans for wartime incarceration.  

To honor this milestone, the Bainbridge Island Parks Foundation and Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association are partnering on stewardship projects and a documentary film at the memorial site and Pritchard Park.  

UPDATE: This campaign is now fully funded. 

“The wartime exclusion and welcome return of the island’s Japanese American neighbors is a foundational story of our community,” said Mary Meier, Parks Foundation executive director. “This partnership is about healing both land and people, as we honor a uniquely Bainbridge Island story that resonates into the present day.”    

Two environmental restoration events launch the project.

On Feb. 19, the Parks Foundation and BIJAEMA co-sponsor a Volunteer Work Day on the annual Day of Remembrance for Executive Order 9066, which authorized the wartime exclusion. The Bainbridge community is invited to refresh and replant the Exclusion Memorial grounds and surrounding park. Pre-register for that event here.

From March 7-11, a team from EarthCorps of Seattle will perform intensive restoration at the park. The group will focus on invasive ivy that swaths upland areas of the 50-acre park, and other restoration needs.

These restoration activities lead in to the 80th year observance at the Exclusion Memorial, on March 30, 2022. The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community is now planning those activities, with details to be announced soon. 

Documentary film in the making

Local filmmaker Katie Jennings has been selected for the new documentary about the Exclusion Memorial. 

Jennings’ film will follow the creation and installation of dramatic new interpretive figures at the memorial’s Departure Deck. The large, cut-metal “negative silhouettes” will depict armed soldiers and departing islanders, powerfully evoking the day of exclusion on March 30, 1942.

Jennings visits the memorial often, and “each time, I’m humbled by the strength that island residents showed in the face of such injustice,” she said.

“I want the film to reach people who can’t come to Bainbridge to experience the monument and the wonderful people involved in its creation,” Jennings said. “I hope the film will add layers of meaning for new audiences as well as those already familiar with the story.”

The video will help the BIJAEMA organization fundraise for a visitor and interpretive center, board president Val Tollefson said, and will be an important historical document. 

“I think it’s absolutely wonderful,” Tollefsen said. “The Seattle organization Densho has made its reason for existence preserving the stories of Japanese Americans who were incarcerated during World War II,  and this is an important part of that work.

“Being able to add this film to the historical archive is just invaluable.”

Total cost for the environmental work and documentary film is $25,000, with grant support from the City of Bainbridge Island’s Civic Improvement Fund and other sources. 

About the Exclusion Memorial 

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial was dedicated in 2004 as a permanent civil rights monument. The memorial is located at Pritchard Park, on the south shore of Eagle Harbor on Bainbridge Island.

The Exclusion Memorial’s winding wall and friezes honor the 276 Bainbridge Islanders of Japanese descent – most of them American citizens – who were sent to wartime exclusion under Executive Order 9066, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II and anti-Japanese sentiment swept the nation.

The Exclusion Memorial has earned national and international acclaim, and tells the exclusion story through the unique experiences of Japanese Americans who were sent into wartime exile but were welcomed back to their Bainbridge Island community after the war.

The memorial is a National Park Service satellite site of the Minidoka (Ida.) National Historic site. 

Find out more: info@biparksfoundation.org , www.bijaema.org, www.bijac.org 

Images from the 79th-year observance at the Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, March 30 2019. 

Preliminary rendition of planned Exclusion Memorial Departure Deck interpretive figures courtesy of artists Luc Revel and Anna Brones.