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Email: "Second phase of nisei center gets boost from state grant"
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WAILUKU — The second phase of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center was kicked into high gear Monday with the presentation of a $750,000 state grant to allow completion of an education center at the facility.

Expected to cost a little more than $1 million, the education center will combine a classroom with an archive/library, constructed below ground to be more energy efficient while it protects historic documents, photographs and military memorabilia preserving the historic achievements of the nisei veterans of World War II.

The attached classroom will provide programs for students and youth organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts to have lessons on the history of the nisei veterans of World War II.

“It’s not just about what they did in the war,” said Hiroshi Arisumi, president of the memorial center and a veteran of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. “It will be about the values that drove them, their sense of duty, honor and citizenship.

“If we can guide our youth with those values, we will all be better for it.”

Nisei refers to the second generation of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

The education center will encompass 2,300 square feet under a roof that will also extend the play area for the intergenerational adult day care and preschool operations at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center.

The $750,000 grant was presented in ceremony at the center with Hawaii National Guard Brig. Gen. Gary Ishikawa and Lt. Gov. James “Duke” Aiona participating.

Executive Director Barbara Watanabe said the center has amassed a collection of materials brought in by veterans, their wives and widows, and their families, as well as other documents from World War II depicting the contributions and sacrifices of the nisei who fought in the war and their families.

The materials to be archived include a collection of copies of The Honolulu Advertiser from December 1941 to June 1945, with front pages and several full sections. Watanabe asked whether there might be similar collections of newspaper such as The Maui News or other publications stored somewhere in the community.

“We expect there will be a resurgence of donations of historic materials when people realize, oh, the education center is really coming up; it’s an ongoing thing,” Watanabe said.

The archives will be a fully air-conditioned facility built into the slope at the center site because the covering of sand and earth will help to protect the documents and other materials stored inside.

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center already includes an adult day care program operated by Maui Adult Day Care Centers, and the Kansha Preschool, providing an intergenerational program in which elders can participate in care of the preschoolers.

The education center will provide additional opportunities for intergenerational experiences, Arisumi said.

“With the educational building, we will be able to touch three generations of our community. We will touch everyone, the students, the preschoolers, the elders,” he said.

 

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