Posted on: Wednesday, August 4, 2004
Nisei vets memorial center on fund-raising campaign
By Christie Wilson
Advertiser Neighbor Island Editor
WAILUKU, Maui — The "Go for Broke — Again" fund-raising campaign will be launched at Saturday's 9 a.m. blessing and groundbreaking for the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center in Wailuku.
The nonprofit center, to be built on a two-acre site where Kahului Beach Road meets Lower Main Street, will have an Intergenerational Center with a preschool and an adult daycare facility.
The $4.5 million memorial center is a tribute to the Japanese-American veterans of World War II, including those who served in the "Go for Broke" 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the Military Intelligence Service.
Most of the money raised so far has come from grants and individual donations, and the project also has received significant state and county support. Executive director Barbara Watanabe said there is an urgent need to raise the remaining $1 million, since the AJA veterans are in their 80s.
The first phase of construction will complete road work in and out of the center and a one-story, 1,300-square-foot building for the preschool and office space.
Hiroshi Arisumi, memorial center president, said the goal is to raise enough money by the fall so that construction of the second-phase adult daycare building can dovetail with the first phase of work. A later phase will see construction of an archive center for documents, oral histories and memorabilia from nisei veterans and their families.
The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center works in collaboration with Maui's Sons and Daughters of Nisei Veterans, the Maui Club 100, the Maui 442nd Veterans Club, Maui AJA Veterans Inc., the Veterans of the Military Intelligence Service, the West Maui AJA Veterans Inc., and other nisei veterans' organizations in Hawai'i and on the Mainland.
Saturday's groundbreaking and blessing will be followed by a reception at the Ka'a'ike building on the Maui Community College campus.
For more information, contact the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center office at (808) 244-6862, or visit the center Web site at www.nvmc.org. Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 244-4880.
