October 2005• The monthly newsletter for UWT faculty and staff

Japanese memorial garden in design phase

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The school had been the cultural and civic center of a busy Japanese neighborhood, packed with restaurants, hotels, laundries and grocery stores. Children would walk to the Japanese Language School after attending Tacoma’s public schools to spend a few hours learning the language, arts and traditions of their culture. The principal, Masato Yamasaki, was held in the highest esteem in the community. Former students continue to recall how he inspired them to behave with dignity in an environment fraught with discrimination.

From a pool at the base of the granite water-wall, rivulets flow down both sides of the stair to a larger pool at the base. Visitors approaching the memorial garden will cross a wooden bridge, signifying immigrants coming across Puget Sound, and walk up the stairs to read large plaques set into the water-wall. Between the wooden bridge and the plaza, visitors will walk through three Japanese gates, constructed from pillars of steel and beams of granite, each representing one of the three generations of Japanese Americans and their children who attended the school. Three plaques inset over the granite water-wall will tell the story of the school and the role it played in the thriving community, the internment during WWII, the leading role the school’s principal played in the community, and the school song. In the plaza, 10 small meditation benches will represent 10 Japanese American relocation camps. Pine, Japanese cherry and Ginko trees will dot the landscape, as they did at the Japanese Language School site.

UW Tacoma acquired the Japanese Language School building in the early 1990s and tried unsuccessfully to find a tenant who would help invest in refurbishing the building. The UW received permission to demolish the building from the local historic preservation authority but let the building stand. In 2003, the City of Tacoma informed UWT that the building had become a hazard. A study was commissioned to determine options and efforts were made, again, to find a tenant. The consultant, BOLA architects of Seattle, determined the wooden building had deteriorated so badly a restoration would not have historic integrity and recommended focusing on preserving the heritage of the building. UWT hosted a major event to celebrate the heritage of the school and began work on a memorial garden.

The garden design was created by Kenichi Nakano, the principal of Nakano & Associates, a highly successful landscape architectural firm in Seattle. Nakona’s mother attended the Japanese Language School, and Kenichi, as a baby, lived in the building for a short time after the war when the school served as a hostel for families who had lost their homes.

UWT professors Mary Hanneman and Lisa Hoffman attended a reunion of former Language School students in 2003 and were inspired to document their oral histories. The former students were visiting UWT to learn about the fate of the school and to provide feedback on the concept of a memorial garden. With funding from grants, Hanneman and Hoffman have traveled across the country to interview former students and, thus far, have collected 35 stories they are compiling and editing into a book.