Artwork honoring exiled students to be unveiled

The sign also celebrates a gift of 100 cherry trees given to the district by Mr. Ujiro Nishiyori, the President of Vashon Island’s Japanese Society, back in March 1932.

By Peter Woodbrook For Vashon Island School District • March 8, 2023 1:30 am
New interpretative signage, designed by Vashon High School alumna Chatal Uto to honor Japanese students exiled from the island in 1942, will be officially unveiled on the grounds of Vashon High School on March 26 (Peter Woodbrook Photo).
New interpretative signage, designed by Vashon High School alumna Chatal Uto to honor Japanese students exiled from the island in 1942, will be officially unveiled on the grounds of Vashon High School on March 26 (Peter Woodbrook Photo).

The Vashon Island School District (VISD), in partnership with the Vashon Heritage Museum, Mukai Farm & Garden, and the Vashon Fruit Club, will host a public ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 26, at Vashon High School, to unveil the installation of interpretative signage to commemorate and honor the 28 VISD students and their families who were forcibly removed from their homes on Vashon on May 16, 1942, and incarcerated in U.S. government camps.

“In making this sign, we want the students at Vashon High School, in particular, and the rest of the community who views it, to know that the children who were exiled had names,” said Friends of Mukai Board President Rita Brogan. “We worked hard to make this as personal as possible.”

In addition to honoring the students, the sign also celebrates a gift of 100 cherry trees given to the district by Mr. Ujiro Nishiyori, the President of Vashon Island’s Japanese Society, back in March 1932.

Throughout the years, as new buildings were built and old buildings were torn down, the cherry trees slowly dwindled in their numbers. Today, only four remain. As part of the project, the Vashon Fruit Club grafted scions from the remaining trees to create 100 new cherry tree rootstocks.

With funding made possible by the Kip Tokuda Washington Civil Liberties Public Education Program and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), the District hired Vashon High School alumna Chatal Uto to design the signage.

Uto, who was born in Japan and grew up on Vashon, spent hours at the Vashon Heritage Museum studying old yearbooks and annuals to connect with the past of the Japanese American community on Vashon.

“I knew there was a history of Japanese people on Vashon, but I never had faces to put to it,” said Uto. “Because so few of the individuals removed came back, there is an erasure of that history, of sorts. Few people, outside of me or maybe someone who is writing a book, are going to take the time to sit down in a history museum and look through old yearbooks.”

The District and Friends of Mukai anticipate relatives of some of the exiled students will be in attendance at the unveiling ceremony.