The ‘Puyallup Assembly Center’ Remembrance Gallery opened to the public on August 30th, the first day of the Washington State Fair. It will continue for most weekdays and Saturdays while the Fair is ongoing. The Gallery is located under the historical Grandstand at the fairgrounds in a space donated by the Washington State Fair.
This permanent production is both a memorial and a history lesson concerning the Nikkei of Washington State who were affected by Executive Order 9066.
The narration makes history more real through immersive-media digital touch screens, interpretive displays, and interactive maps. A visitor will also experience a replica 1942 horse stall living quarter. A background audio track simulating neighbors in other stalls chatting, whispering, sneezing, coughing, and babies crying conveys a discomforting lack of privacy.
The gallery extends the story to include information about all the temporary centers and the10 large permanent camps nationwide. The production also expands its relevance to current issues of racism and immigration. Visitor Pat V. from Seattle, said “The exhibit nicely ties into other instances of historic and ongoing oppression.”
A highlight is the long, artfully shaped and illuminated white wall which lists the 7,600 plus names of the people who were incarcerated at the “Puyallup Assembly Center”.
The technology being used in the gallery allows for changes, edits, and additions. For example, Puyallup Assembly Center survivor, Cho Shimizu, always ready with his sketchbook, is trying to find other survivors who can remember what the layout was under the grandstands during the incarceration.
Puyallup Valley Chapter JACL President Eileen Yamada Lamphere, Project Director Sharon Sobie-Seymour, Finance Chair Liz Dunbar, volunteer consultant Barbara Mizoguchi, and JACL members, along with many other volunteers, have been working selflessly for a long time to make this particular memorialization and remembrance of American history happen. In addition to educating the public, it is an homage and loving tribute to all the souls and ancestors who were unjustly incarcerated and who shared their experience together at the Puyallup Assembly Center.
For the gallery to come into existence, there was hard-earned successful fund raising. And it is fitting to note that the Honorary Co-Chairs are Bill Weyerhaeuser and Frank & Penny Fukui.
