The Friends of Mukai have earned a $45,000 grant to construct a memorial sculpture at Ober Park commemorating the 1942 victims of Japanese exile and incarceration.

The organization, which oversees and maintains the historical Mukai property, announced the grant award on Thursday, March 20.

The sculpture will honor the legacy of the 111 Vashon residents of Japanese ancestry who were exiled from their homes on Vashon Island on May 16, 1942. Ober Park was the site where armed soldiers rounded up those residents, forcibly deporting them off the island and into concentration camps across the western U.S.

Those islanders were among the roughly 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry exiled by President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, which authorized the forced removal and incarceration of persons of Japanese ancestry in the West Coast Exclusion Zone.

Funding for the memorial comes from the T-Mobile Hometown Grant Program, which required a “shovel ready” project that the Mukai organization additionally funded through private donations.

The grant will facilitate a dream “we’ve had for many years,” Friends of Mukai Co-President Rita Brogan said: “The statue allows us to tell the personal stories of Vashon residents who were unjustly imprisoned because of their race. Two-thirds of those who were incarcerated were American-born citizens and had committed no crime.”

Brogan also thanked the Vashon Park District for providing Ober Park for installation of the sculpture.

Though the grant will fund the bulk of construction and design, the final cost of the project may be affected by tariff-spurred economic disruptions, according to the Friends of Mukai.

An unveiling event for design of the statue will be held at Ober Park at 10 a.m. on May 18 at Vashon’s annual Day of Exile ceremony. The public is invited to attend the ceremony.

The Japanese American exile and incarceration, according to the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, was a decision made out of “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.” It shattered the Vashon Japanese American community, and only about a third returned to the island after the war.

In addition to Japanese Americans, the U.S. also oversaw the detainment of thousands of German and Italian ancestry, many of whom were United States citizens.

Founded by Issei pioneer B.D. Mukai in 1926 as a strawberry farm, Mukai Farm & Garden today features a heritage home, Japanese garden and the historic fruit barreling plant. The Friends of Mukai maintain the property open and free to the public, hosting events celebrating Japanese culture and the island’s agrarian heritage. Learn more at mukaifarmandgarden.org.