Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH -- (House of Representatives - May 03, 2005)
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Mr. INSLEE. Mr. Speaker, I have enjoyed listening to this story of the tapestry of the Asian American Pacific Islander community in America; and that tapestry, of course, consists of quite a number of threads. I would like to add one thread to this great story of this important part of the American tapestry.
And that story began on March 30, 1942, on Bainbridge Island, Washington, actually the island where I live. On that day, a young 2 ½ -year-old named Frank became one of the first Americans of Japanese descent to be rounded up by our military and forced to leave his home. We have a picture here. Actually, it is a pretty historic picture. These were the first Japanese Americans to be interned during World War II. They left the dock on Bainbridge Island en masse, surrounded back up here, though we do not see them in the picture, of soldiers with bayonets; and they were marched down into a boat and taken to Seattle and eventually to Manzanar.
Obviously, at that time, after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, our Nation was really living under a cloud of uncertainty when, along with Frank, 226 other men and women, families left the dock at Bainbridge Island, and they were the first imprisoned at Manzanar. Eventually, 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were stripped of their very basic rights and freedoms guaranteed to every American under the Constitution, and most spent the duration of the war in these camps.
It took a long time for Americans to come to grips with this, come to grips with these injustices as part of our history. But it is important to remember them lest we forget and allow fear and anxiety that is understandable ever to push us over the edge again to darkness that occurred to those people in those years.
Frank is now known as Dr. Kitamoto, a great dentist on Bainbridge Island. Frank is a grown man. He carries the story of this internment with a very quiet strength and courage. And he knows that while we regret those decisions that were made 63 years ago, he does not cast blame. Instead, Dr. Kitamoto has transferred his personal experience into a living history to try to share the wisdom that comes with such a searing experience. He shares his story so that others can learn from this mistake so that we are reminded not to let that happen again.
Frank has a 45-minute slide presentation that he presents to schools throughout the State of Washington, and California, Oklahoma, Connecticut and Idaho, wherever he is invited, and he makes the trip on his own dime. Frank wants to make sure this story is told and told by someone who knows the story.
For over 20 years he has lead the Bainbridge Island Japanese American community as President, and he has worked to create a memorial, a remembrance to this event in our community's history. The Bainbridge Island community put a lot of effort into selecting a name for this memorial and, with care and deliberation, selected a Japanese phrase, "Nidoto Nai Yoni" or "let it not happen again."
I am proud that the history of Dr. Kitamoto has become part of the American story, and I was proud to sponsor legislation that will hopefully make the "Nidoto Nai Yoni" memorial at Pritchard Park an officially recognized part of our national heritage. That bill passed this Chamber last year, we are in the planning phases now, to make this a national memorial. Most of this dock is not here now, but we have just a beautiful memorial planned so that this story can remain part of our national tapestry.
It is my honor to join efforts with Dr. Kitamoto and sit beside him at the dedication ceremony for the memorial. It is my honor now to remember and share this story of a group of Americans whose quiet strength and sacrifice and courage and patriotism of the many sons who served in World War II while their families were in these camps. Their story really is an inspiration for everyone everywhere, and I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Honda) for convening this important discussion.
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