Prior to World War Two, many Japanese and Japanese Americans lived and ran vibrant businesses in the neighborhoods surrounding the Seattle University campus. A few Japanese American students were enrolled at Seattle College in 1941, but compelled to end their studies when 120,000 people of Japanese heritage were forcibly relocated and held behind barbed wire in internment camps for three years, without having committed a crime and without due process. The Japanese Remembrance Garden honors the partnership between Seattle University, in accord with its mission and values of peace and social justice, and the Japanese American neighbors and fellow students who were subject to the injustice of Executive Order 9066. In the 1950's Seattle University hired master gardener Fujitaro Kubota, and later his son Tom Kubota, to design and install garden features on campus. The Japanese Remembrance Garden, dedicated on April 6, 2006, is the ninth Kubota garden on campus.
From the description of Seattle University Japanese Remembrance Garden Records, 1940-1946, 2004-2006. (Seattle University). WorldCat record id: 758002060
From the guide to the Seattle University Japanese Remembrance Garden Records, 1940-1946, 2004-2006, (Special Collections, Lemieux Library and McGoldrick Learning Commons, Seattle University)
