Work to proceed on care facility at Maui's Nisei center
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — An intergenerational center that provides day care for preschoolers and the elderly will be the first component of the long-awaited Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Wailu-ku.
Donations, while slow, have allowed construction to begin on the $3.9 million multipurpose center. Call the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center at (808) 244-6862.
The $3.9 million multipurpose project will include an archive center containing oral histories and memorabilia from the families of Japanese-American soldiers who served in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 100th Infantry Battalion and the Military Intelligence Service during World War II.
Fund-raising continues
Difficult fund-raising and the discovery of Hawaiian burials on the 2-acre site off Kahului Beach Road caused delays in the project, launched in 1985 by the Maui Sons & Daughters of Nisei Veterans. Also supporting the memorial center are the Maui Club 100, Maui 442nd Veterans Club, Maui AJA Veterans, Veterans of the Military Intelligence Service and West Maui AJA Veterans.
Alexander & Baldwin donated the land, the state contributed $1 million, and the county gave $500,000. Another $1.5 million has come from grants and individual donations.
More money must be raised to complete the project, but the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center board decided to proceed with construction of the preschool by midyear, before the ranks of Nisei veterans dwindle further. The group will continue to raise money for the adult daycare center.
"Time is of the essence to start construction so that as many Nisei veterans as possible will be able to walk the center being built in their honor," said board president Hiroshi Arisumi, who served in the 442nd.
Enrollment in both programs will be open to the public. The adult day-care facility will accept patients with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. Such a program is especially needed on Maui, which saw its population of residents 75 years and older grow almost 60 percent in the 1990s. The rate is expected to speed up even more as the baby-boom generation retires.
"We are already facing a shortage of programs and facilities to care for our growing senior citizen population," said John Tomoso, Maui County executive on aging. "Not only are people of our community living longer, but many of our seniors are living with frailties and conditions that tax our abilities to care for one another."
Tomoso applauded the idea of providing regular interaction between young and old in the daycare programs.
Barbara Watanabe, executive director of the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center, said the group plans to lease the adult daycare facility to an experienced operator, but has not yet decided how the preschool will be managed.
Watanabe said original museum plans have been scaled back. Instead, an archive center will be housed in a separate two-story building. Construction for that phase has not been scheduled.
