CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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A RESOLUTION providing an honorary designation of 28th Avenue Northeast from Northeast 125th Street to Northeast 127th Street as "Hayashi Avenue."
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WHEREAS, Shizuo & Yaeko Hayashi family were owners of the Lake City Farms; and
WHEREAS, the family was an active part of the community; and
WHEREAS, despite the lack of any evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land during World War II; and
WHEREAS, President Roosevelt signed an executive order on February 19, 1942 ordering the relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans to concentration camps in the interior of the United States; and
WHEREAS, 7,050 Japanese Americans from Seattle were forced from their homes and transported from Seattle; and
WHEREAS, most camps along the West Coast were hastily assembled and lacked basic needs, such as cots, blankets, and pillows, and had dirty and smelly living conditions; and
WHEREAS, the Hayashi family was interned in the Minidoka internment camp, they were unable to bring any possessions and were forced to sell their farm; and
WHEREAS, with the mass internment, Japanese farms locally were confiscated and transferred to non-Japanese farmers; and
WHEREAS, in a landmark report titled "Personal Justice Denied," the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians estimated that between $810 million and $2 billion (in 1983 dollars) was lost in income and property among all Japanese evacuees; and
WHEREAS, the Hayashi family never returned to Lake City after they were released from the internment camp; and
WHEREAS, in 1976, President Gerald Ford officially apologized for Roosevelt's executive order, and in 1988, President Ronald Reagan approved the Civil Liberties Act that provided $20,000 for each internment camp survivor; and
WHEREAS, the City has a history of stating its commitment to human rights with the creation in 1963 of the Seattle Human Rights Commission to make reco...
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