College president & vp resign over vandalized artwork about Japanese incarceration

Portions of the plaque at right explaining the artwork were covered up.

ASAM NEWS

The president of Bellevue College near Seattle and one of his Vice Presidents has resigned after that same Vice President vandalized a mural on campus depicting the incarceration of Japanese Americans, reports MyNorthwest.com.
The decision to fire the two apparently came after a meeting of the school’s Board of Directors.

“The recent defacement of the ‘Never Again Is Now’ art installation along with the response to this deplorable act has deeply impacted students, staff and faculty,” said Board Chair Richard Fukutaki. “It has damaged the credibility of the college locally, regionally and nationally. But beyond that, it was just fundamentally wrong, and we needed to act decisively.”

The college placed Gayle Colston Barge, vice president of institutional advancement, on leave after she admitted removing the reference to “decades of anti-Japanese agitation, led by Eastside businessman Miller Freeman and others.”

Fukutaki told the Seattle Times the school does not believe Barge actually whited out the reference, but instructed someone else to do so. More than 20 percent of the school’s student body and staff are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

The Board made the decisions to fire President Jerry Weber and Barge during an emergency meeting over the weekend.

Erin Shigaki is the artist who created the Never Again is Now mural.

This week, she penned an op-ed about the incident.

“When I found out that the Day of Remembrance mural I had installed at Bellevue College had been defaced just days after it went up, I was angry and shocked, but not entirely surprised,” she wrote in the South Seattle Emerald. She said references to the Freeman family role in anti-Japanese agitation has long been controversial.

Last fall at the City of Bellevue’s Bellwether Festival, something similar happened. Her reference to the Freemans on another art installation was also removed.

“Another artist, Khadija Tarver, was also forced to remove the Freeman name from her work, and a third, James Snowden, was asked to strike what he wrote about an anti-Asian slur heard on the streets of present day downtown Bellevue.”

College apologizes after professor alters mural depicting incarceration of Japanese Americans

The plaque adjoining the artwork, (top) was taped over.

ASAM NEWS

The vice president of Bellevue College in Washington whited out part of a mural by a Japanese American artist depicting the incarceration camps from World War II, reports the Seattle Times.

The university is apologizing for the actions of Gayle Colston Barge who has been in her position for more than five years, according to her LinkedIn profile. The school placed Barge on administrative leave after her actions.

The mural features two Japanese American children from an incarceration camp along with a description of the horrendous experience.

According to Professor Leslie Lum, someone removed the sentence that read “After decades of anti-Japanese agitation, led by Eastside businessman Miller Freeman and others, the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans included the 60 families (300 individuals) who farmed Bellevue.”

Freeman — whose family became prominent real estate developers — owned several trade newspapers such as Pacific Fisherman, The Washington Farmer, The Town Crier and a handful others. His publications were an influential news source for businesses, but also became a platform for his anti-Japanese sentiments. Through his newspapers, he advocated for alien land laws in Washington. Freeman and others like him believed that there was no hope for Japanese people to ever become “real American.” He wrote in one Seattle Star editorial dated 1919: “Oil and water do not mix.”

The university says Barge first whited out the reference, then a new description was taped over the original.

” It was a mistake to alter the artist’s work,” school president Jerry Weber wrote in the letter sent to students and staff. “Removing the reference gave the impression that the administrator was attempting to remove or rewrite history, a history that directly impacts many today … Editing artistic works changes the message and meaning of the work.”

In a text to the Seattle Times, artist Erin Shigaki wrote “I feel the feelings associated with both sides of my family being forcibly removed from Seattle – erased, unimportant, disregarded, disrespected, shamed.”

Shikagi described herself as “traumatized” by the defacement.

The missing sentence has since been taped back over the whited-out portion.

Views From the Edge contributed to this report.