PORT ANGELES — The president of the Bainbridge Island Japanese-American community and a founder of the Bainbridge Island Japanese-American Exclusion Memorial will present a lecture on the history of Japanese-American people during Peninsula College’s weekly Studium Generale on Thursday.
Clarence Moriwaki’s free lecture will be at 12:35 p.m. in the Little Theater on the Port Angeles campus, 1502 E. Lauridsen Blvd.
The 75th anniversary of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s executive order authorizing the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is Feb. 19.
The executive order resulted in more than 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast of the United States being imprisoned in camps despite committing no crime.
Bainbridge Island Japanese-Americans were taken by ferry March 30, 1942. Most internees were sent to Manzanar, Calif., although some were later transferred to Minidoka, Idaho.
Moriwaki has founded, innovated and directed a variety of educational programs and community resources that emphasize the importance of understanding the history of the United States in its complexities, according to college officials.
This includes spending more than 15 years creating and developing the Bainbridge Island Japanese-American Exclusion Memorial so that it could earn designation as a National Historic Site.
For his efforts, he was awarded the National Parks Conservation Association’s Marjory Stonemason Douglas Award in 2008.
Moriwaki is the principal of Forest Edge Communications and has served as the CEO of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington, campaign manager for the ACLU of Washington, and as a senior aide and spokesperson for former President Bill Clinton, former Gov. Mike Lowry, former Congressman Jay Inslee, former Lt. Gov. John Cherberg, the state Senate, Kitsap County, Sound Transit and the Portland Rose Festival Association.
Moriwaki also worked as a news reporter and program producer for three Seattle radio stations. He served as a member of the Tukwila City Council and ran for the state Senate and a Kitsap County commissioner seat.
He has served on the board of directors for numerous statewide, regional and local organizations, and he is the state’s first and only person to earn his place as an Eagle Scout at just 12 years old, according to the college.
