424 S Main st  

47.60029, -122.328788 (OpenStreetMap, Google Maps, Yandex Maps)

North-east corner of the building
Complete the phrase on the sidewalk "Idealism is ...?"
realism

Historical background

During World War Two when Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes and communities, Gordon Hirabayashi, who was a senior at the University of Washington, stood up for social justice. He defied the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war because it was racially discriminatory and violated his rights as a U.S. citizen and later he was jailed for refusing to register at an internment-processing center. He took his case to the Supreme Court in 1943, but his case was defeated. Forty years later, he fought and won vacation of his wartime convictions.
The internment devastated Seattle’s Japantown, or Nihonmachi, a 15-block neighborhood north of South Jackson Street that had thrived for half a century. The neighborhood never recovered and Japantown is limited to the area around South Main and 6th.
"With (Hirabayashi Place) we wanted to do our part to reassert the cultural identity of this little corner of the neighborhood," Leslie Morishita, lead housing developer for the nonprofit developer, InterIm Community Development Association.
The Legacy of Justice Committee is stewarding education and public art installations at Hirabayashi Place that will enlighten visitors about Gordon Hirabayashi’s courageous stance for justice, and contribute to the hopeful possibility that a horrible injustice will never happen again.

Present in routes of categories Lion-Mini, Griffin

Passed by: 20/24 (83%).

By categories:

  • Griffin: 4/4 (100%)
  • Lion-Mini: 16/20 (80%)