“Haiku no Niwa,” Japanese Haiku Garden
Under Executive Order 9066, thousands of people of Japanese ancestry on the Pacific Coast of the United States were incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The first 227 victims in the country were removed from Bainbridge Island on March 30, 1942. The Japanese haiku garden, “Haiku no Niwa,” on the west side of the Bainbridge Public Library, was donated by the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community who dedicated it to the Issei generation of Japanese Americans on the island, many of whom were victims of internment during World War II.[1]
The garden’s Dedication Stone reads, “The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community gratefully acknowledges the generosity of all the donors and volunteer efforts given to the Haiku no Niwa in memory of the Bainbridge Island Issei generation.”
The garden, designed by Viki McCabe and Doug Tanaka, was installed in 1997 during renovations to the public library. Incorporated into the landscape are a series of haiku poems carved into granite in both Japanese and English.[2]
The American Library Association awarded the Bainbridge Public Library Gardens its Best Library Garden award in 2000. Nationally recognized gardener Anne Lovejoy and a team of volunteers maintain the garden every Friday.[3]
The island’s new Japanese American Exclusion Memorial, a unit of the Nindoka National Historic Site, also commemorates the first instance in the United States where people of Japanese ancestry were forcibly removed and sent to internment camps during World War II. The memorial is a reminder that this moment in US history never be repeated, “Nidoto Nai Yoni (Let It Not Happen Again).”[4]
[1] “Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial,” National Park Service, accessed August 12, 2016, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/asian_american_and_pacific_islander_heritage/Bainbridge-Island-Japanese-American-Exclusion-Memorial.htm; “Bainbridge Library History,” Bainbridge Public Library, accessed August 20, 2016, http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/history.aspx.
[2] “Haiku No Niwa,” Bainbridge Public Library, accessed August 20, 2016, http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/haiku-no-niwa.aspx.
[3] “Haiku No Niwa,” Bainbridge Public Library.
[4] “Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial,” National Park Service.”
Credits and Sources:
Description by Madison Heslop on behalf of the American Society for Environmental History.
Bainbridge Public Library. "Bainbridge Library History." Bainbridge Public Library. Accessed August 20, 2016. http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/history.aspx.
Bainbridge Public Library. "Haiku No Niwa." Bainbridge Public Library. Accessed August 20, 2016. http://www.bainbridgepubliclibrary.org/haiku-no-niwa.aspx.
National Park Service, “Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial.” National Park Service. Accessed August 12, 2016. https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/asian_american_and_pacific_islander_heritage/Bainbridge-Island-Japanese-American-Exclusion-Memorial.htm.
