SENATE BILL REPORT

SJM 8036

As Reported By Senate Committee On:

State & Local Government, February 6, 2002

Brief Description:  Requesting a memorial to remember the internment of Japanese‑Americans during World War II.

Sponsors:  Senators B. Sheldon, Shin, Carlson, Haugen, Sheahan, Spanel, Oke, Franklin, Rasmussen, Jacobsen, Eide, Winsley, Costa, T. Sheldon, Kastama, Thibaudeau, Gardner, Hale, Swecker, West, Prentice, McAuliffe, Kline, Fraser, Keiser, Johnson, Roach and Kohl‑Welles.

Brief History:

Committee Activity:  State & Local Government:  2/6/02 [DPS].

SENATE COMMITTEE ON STATE & LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Majority Report:  That Substitute Senate Bill No. 8036 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

Signed by Senators Gardner, Chair; Fairley, Vice Chair; Hale, Haugen, Horn, Keiser, Kline, Roach, T. Sheldon and Swecker.

Staff:  Eugene Green (786-7405)

Background:  On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, forcing the exile of more than 110,000 Japanese-Americans from Washington, Oregon, and California.  In Washington State, 12,892 men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry, most of them United States citizens, experienced three years of unconstitutional internment.

On March 30, 1942, 227 Bainbridge Island men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry, most of them United States citizens, were escorted to the former Eagledale ferry landing where they departed on the ferry Kehloken after being forcibly removed from homes by the United States Army with only six days' notice.  Their only crime was being Nikkei B persons of Japanese ancestry.

To commemorate this momentous and tragic event, the Bainbridge Island WWII Nikkei Exclusion Memorial Committee is working with members of Washington State's federal delegation and appropriate federal authorities to designate the former Eagledale ferry landing as a national memorial.

Summary of Substitute Bill:  The Legislature requests that Congress continue its worthy endeavor to designate the former Eagledale ferry landing on Bainbridge Island as a national memorial to remember the unconstitutional internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

Substitute Bill Compared to Original Bill:  A drafting error is corrected.

Appropriation:  None.

Fiscal Note:  Not requested.

Testimony For:  The vision is for a memorial area that is evocative and contemplative with the power to instruct future generations about the injustices of the past and the fragility of assumed rights.  It will also bring an awareness of the capacity of human beings to heal, forgive, and care for one another.

Testimony Against:  None.

Testified:  PRO:  Clarence Moriwaki, Bainbridge Island Japanese American community; WWII Nikkei Memorial Committee; Dwight Sutton, City of Bainbridge Island.