On the morning of our second day, as we were walking up towards the Capitol, we noticed a ring of blooming cherry trees standing in front of a curved stone wall. We decided to walk around to the entrance in the wall to get a better look at the trees. As we walked inside, we discovered ourselves in the center of the Memorial to Japanese-American Patriotism during WWII.
Finished in the year 2000, this memorial honors those Japanese-Americans who served during WWII and the more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans detained in internment camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Inscribed on the wall are the names of the battles in which they fought and the names of the internment camps. Two cranes sit on top of a stone pillar in the center of the memorial. If you look closely you can see strands of barbed wire wrapped around the two birds.
We took some time to walk around and read all of the inscriptions on the wall.
The wall opens up to a pool on one side. Along the edge of the pool is inscribed a quote from President Ronald Reagan. It reads, "Here we admit a wrong. Here we affirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law."
We continued walking through the memorial around the pool. This section was especially pretty with the black stone, large boulders and nearby blooming trees.
It was so peaceful. We initially noticed this memorial from its back, which looks like nothing more than a plain wall. I'm so glad we decided to walk inside, because it is such a beautiful little place and we would have never discovered it otherwise.
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