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Phase
II: Education Center
Wisdom & Hope
History test: Beginning in the 1930s
why did a coalition of Southern states block Hawaii’s admission
into the United States?
The younger you are, the less likely you are to know the answer.
Which is all the more reason that we need to preserve the history of the
Nisei soldiers.
The Answer: The Southern states opposed Hawaii because of its predominantly
Asian population.
The young Nisei who fought heroically
in Europe and the Pacific – and
became the most highly decorated soldiers in US Army history – played
a pivotal role in dismantling those roadblocks.
The third and
final building of our living memorial is our Education Center.
The one-story 2,100 square foot building will be the heart
and soul of the memorial as it houses the Nisei Veterans Archives,
an extensive collection of books, oral histories and one-of-a-kind
family albums, photographs and personal communiqués from
World War II.
The workroom will provide counter space
for researchers to view these documents and artifacts. Through
oral histories, photographs, diaries and letters from the battlefront,
the Nisei soldiers will share their love of country, fear of
battle, and inkling that theirs were important first steps towards
what today we call “civil
rights.”
In addition, the workroom will double as
a classroom to host high school and college seminar classes.
Students will consider the parallels between the Nisei soldiers’ experience,
and our nation’s current struggle to define individual rights
vs. national security.
Students will learn about the values of citizenship,
honor and integrity, as told through the humble words of Nisei veterans
who left Maui’s plantation camps and made an indelible mark
in history.
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