PUYALLUP, Wash. — Hana Konishi was only 8 in the summer of 1942, but she has vivid memories of the four months she spent at the Washington State Fairgrounds in Puyallup.
”When we were here, we were in stalls, not in rooms,” said Konishi, one of the 7,500 Japanese-Americans forced to live at the fairgrounds before being shipped, by the U.S. government, to concentration camps across the west.
Konishi, her six siblings, and mother and father were forced to leave their Seattle homes.
After spending four months in Puyallup, they went to a camp in Idaho until the end of the war - more than three years later.
A new exhibit honoring those housed at the fairgrounds opens when the Washington State Fair kicks off on Friday. The exhibit features photographs, video testimony, a replica of one of the barracks used during the time, as well as a memorial wall honoring the residents of what was known as “Camp Harmony.”
Sharon Sobie Seymour, the Remembrance Gallery’s project manager, spent seven years working with the Japanese Americans Citizens League to get the permanent exhibit included at the fairgrounds.
”We want to give tribute to those Japanese and Japanese Americans who endured all the hardships,” said Sobie Seymour, “But our biggest goal is to educate, but mainly connect what happened in 1942 to what's going on currently in today's world.”
After the war ended Konishi said her father taught her not to let her experiences harm her. She said she’s glad others pushed to bring the exhibit to life.
”I can't praise them enough. I think it's interesting. I won't take it negatively, though. It's just a part of what happened in the past. It's just like a civil war. You don't brood on that. It's just a history lesson that you don't let it happen again,” said Konishi.