April 1, 2025
This past weekend, the Densho team was honored to join the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association for the Commemoration of the 83rd Anniversary of the Day of Forced Removal and Community Scanning Day!
On March 30, 1942, nearly 300 Japanese Americans who called Bainbridge Island home were forcibly removed under Exclusion Order No. 1—the second Japanese American community in the country targeted for eviction, and the first taken directly to a concentration camp. They had just six days to sell or lease their farms, store their property (or sell it for pennies on the dollar), find new homes for pets, and say their goodbyes.
Sunday’s commemoration of this somber anniversary started off with a powerful remembrance of the importance of community, belonging, and a sense of home—especially today as we face renewed threats to our civil liberties and efforts to erase our history. The event closed with a reading of the 276 names of Japanese American residents of Bainbridge Island inscribed in the memorial wall.
In the afternoon, community members brought photos, artifacts, and documents from their family collections for Densho archivists to digitize. This was the inaugural voyage of Densho’s mobile digitization kit, and we look forward to visiting other communities!
