News Roundup — Have names seeking stories/Ho, ho, Hume Christmas CD

Published 6:00 am Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Have names seeking stories

They have the names, now they want to know the people.

The Bainbridge Island Japanese American Community’s Memorial Committee is seeking information on the 276 Japanese American island residents who were forcibly removed from their homes on March 30, 1942, and interned in concentration camps.

The information will be included in the World War II Nikkei Internment and Exclusion Memorial, Nidoto Nai Yoni (“Let It Not Happen Again”) in Eagledale.

“Even a modest amount of information (about a person) – were they a child, a shopkeeper or serving in the military – fleshes a person out,” committee chair Clarence Moriwaki said.

The committee seeks help with verifying the accuracy of the information they have gleaned from federal archives, as well as adding information on births, deaths, marriages, military service, the person’s age or status on March 30, 1942, where the families went during and after the war and other interesting anecdotes or circumstances.

Committee member Debra Grindeland says the archival information contains inaccuracies. Nearly everyone was listed as a farmhand, while others were listed under occupations they were qualified for but not necessarily doing. Some people listed weren’t on the island the day of the removal.

“The goal is to paint a personal story of what happened to these individuals,” Grindeland said.

Moriwaki says the names will be listed on a story wall that will stretch 276 feet, 1 foot per internee, which will lead visitors all the way to a pier that will stretch over the water in a symbolic “leaving the island.”

The wall will tell the story about the immigration of the island residents of Japanese descent: why they came, how they became a part of the Bainbridge community and how the war broke up that community.

Plans are to begin phase one construction – with the $1 million raised to date for the memorial – in the spring of 2006, with park- ing, pathways, a bus drop off area, the story wall and a walkway, Moriwaki said.

Future phases will require an additional $3 million for an interpretive center, meeting rooms. restrooms and a 150-foot pier at the site of the former ferry dock. The length symbolizes the 150 internees who returned to the island after the war.

An important part of the memorial is the pier, Moriwaki said, because it will have visitors “physically walk off the land as the internees did.”

For a copy of the list of Japanese American internees from the island or to provide information, contact Debra Grindeland at debrakei@msn.com or 780-0689.

– Tina Lieu

Ho, ho, Hume Christmas CD

Island musician Kelly Hume’s holiday CD, “It’s Christmas,” reinterprets standard fare with classical, reggae, disco and hip- hop flair.

The versatile Hume created all the music on a Mac G5 in his home.

“In November 2004, I bought an Apple G5 computer to assist with my work as a graphic designer, Hume said. The computer shipped with software called GarageBand, which “allows the user to combine a huge variety of sounds and rhythms in endless combinations.”

With a MIDI keyboard from his wife, Barbara, and son Ryan, Hume recorded songs in his spare time. “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” he said, “was recorded on the hottest day in August.”

The whole family helped with the tunes, some of which are “fairly straightforward, while in others, the Christmas song is barely discernable,” Hume said.

Hume’s songs are being played between shows on KUOW-94.9, which will spotlight the CD from 1 to 3 p.m. on Dec. 26.

The $8 CD is available at Glass Onion. Email kelly@khumedesign.com for more information.

– Rhona Schwartz