By Phyllis Hayashibara

The Los Angeles City Council on November 2, approved 11th District Councilmember Bill Rosendahl’s motion of July 16 that “the Bureau of Street Services, with the assistance of the Planning Department (Office of Historic Resources), the Department of Transportation and the Office of Council District 11 be directed to report with recommendations for the installation of a commemorative marker at the northwest corner of Venice and Lincoln Boulevards to commemorate the start of the internment of hundreds of Japanese and Japanese Americans living in the Venice community on April 25, 1942.”

The Public Works Committee had, on October 20, approved Councilmember Rosendahl’s motion, after it had been referred to the committee for review.

At a November 9 meeting of the VJAMM committee, local artist Yuriko Uematsu Etue shared her drawings and scale model of her sculpture, “9066,” named after the Executive Order signed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which authorized the military to designate areas for evacuation.

The sculpture depicts silhouettes of four figures carrying suitcases on a roughly hewn platform of wooden slats.  Etue has exhibited her model in Los Angeles and in Glendale, and has been looking for a locale to build her sculpture for the past eight years.  She looks forward to submitting a Request For Qualifications at the appropriate time.

For further information about the Venice Japanese American Memorial Marker, please go to KCET Departures at http://bit.ly/eBNcZc or visit the VJAMM Facebook page at http://on.fb.me/fyRNXm.  One hundred and seventy-one “friends” have already “liked” this site!

Tax-deductible donations towards the cost of designing, engineering, and building this important and historic memorial marker may be made payable to and sent to the Venice Community Housing Corporation, 720 Rose Avenue, Venice, CA 90291, with memo VJAMM.

The VCHC is the fiscal sponsor of the Venice Arts Council, which has been building support for this symbol of an historical injustice that should never be forgotten or repeated.