The curtain of 10,000 names who resided at the former Manzanar concentration camp,
with a back drop of a photograph of the camp and Sierra Mountains,
inside the Interpretative Center at the Manzanar Historic Site
OWWCC Delegation to Manzanar
Imagine having the opportunity to walk the grounds of the former Manzanar Concentration in the shoes of Japanese American residents of your community who had been incarcerated there during WWII. For the past three years, OWWCC has organized delegations of Bainbridge Island educators paired with current and former citizens of Bainbridge Island who lived through WWII and the experience of internment, to retrace the 1942 journey of the Bainbridge Island Japanese community to the Manzanar Concentration Camp.
These journeys of discovery have charted new educational territory along the frontier of bearing witness to the Japanese American experience of exclusion, at a crucial period in its historical and contemporary legacy.
Each of our three delegations to Manzanar paired Bainbridge Island survivors with local educators with the aim of enriching, enhancing, and anchoring school curriculum and identity. Our delegations have brought the youngest and oldest living generations of former internees and their peers, from Fumiko Hayashida who just turned 101, to her daughter Natalie who was just a over a year old when she arrived at Manzanar.
We have brought teachers, librarians and principals from from Wilkes Elementary, Briedablik Elementary, Sakai Intermediate School and Woodward Middle School. The latter two schools are named after Bainbridge Island families who were caught up in the exclusion. Sakai and Woodward family members have joined us as delegates and guides for their school counterparts.
“The powerful learning that Sakai teachers experienced left an indelible mark in our hearts and minds, and is already being transformed into an incredible learning opportunity for students.” - Jim Corsetti, 2010 Delegate and Sakai Intermediate School Principal
“These conscientious educators with deep understanding teaching the ‘Internment Experience’ makes the community and world a better place.”
– Kay Sakai Nakao, 2009 & 2010 Delegate and Sakai family member
Our 2012 Bainbridge Island Delegation to Manzanar will take place April 15-18. We will bring Japanese American Delegates who experienced incarceration during their middle and high school years, along with school and community leaders from Bainbridge Island. More details to follow.
About
Only What We Can Carry
For more information about this program, please contact OWWCC at Global Source
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