On June 11, Bellevue College came together to commemorate and honor the mural, “Never Again is Now” by artist Erin Shigaki.
The mural is depicted on the side of the C building, or cafeteria, portraying the cutout of a photograph, taken by Dorothea Lange, of two Japanese children from Japanese internment camps from the 1940s World War II era. The bright-eyed direct stares of the children in the central courtyard of the campus create a bold and haunting statement, especially when coupled with the title “Never Again is Now.”
The ceremony started with a speech from several notable individuals, including President May, activist Stan Shikuma and Shigaki herself. This was accompanied by beautiful performances by the Blaine Ukulele Group of Seattle and Seattle Kokon Taiko.
Shigaki explained that she chose to display this historical visual because “even though I cannot go back and help children escape from slavery or boarding schools, I work with this image because I can stand up for children who are now being imprisoned by our government.”
The mural was originally installed in 2020 and is being honored again in 2026.
According to Shigaki, the reason they chose the title “Never Again is Now” is because “the community started using that terminology, which I think the Jewish community also uses. And we really started investigating this terminology after 9/11, when there was so much anti-Muslim sentiment going on and talks about concentration camps happening for Muslim American people.”
She went on to explain that the message is also very relevant for what’s happening right now, where “it’s related to this huge moment, right where Trump’s ICE is out of control and separating families once again, and then jailing children. That is the other reason why the mural depicts children, because we are doing that on our watch, our dollar and our moral code.”
Shikuma, a long-time activist whom Shigaki introduced as her mentor, also explained the meaning behind the title: to “point to the past, the past that we are not proud of and that some people would rather hide from.”
When the mural was first installed, it was shortly vandalized by a Vice President of Bellevue College, Gayle Colston Barge. Barge had reportedly blocked out a line with Wite-Out on the plaque by the mural about Miller Freeman, a prominent individual in the construction of Bellevue. After this occurred, both the former President, Jerry Weber, and the Vice President stepped down. Shigaki described it as a result of “ultimate cancel culture.”
Miller Freeman was a businessman who is considered to be one of the people who built and industrialized Bellevue. His family now owns all of Bellevue Square, Bellevue Place and Lincoln Square.
Shigaki explained, “Freeman owned some newspapers, and he was very vocal using that platform. When he saw the Asian community starting to be economically successful, and that was well before WWII, starting in the twenties, he started to try to create this culture of anti-Asian sentiment … they are the same ones that get recycled over and over again for communities of color, that we don’t belong here somehow.”
Furthermore, she mentioned that “he was also against the floating bridge being built because he wanted to keep it a separate place. So, I don’t think he would have liked the light rail.”
Interestingly, Kemper Freeman Jr., grandson of Miller Freeman and the current chair and CEO of Kemper Development Company, has been publicly involved in speaking out against the development of the light rail.
However, Shigaki explains that she wishes that the matter had been dealt with differently. She felt that cancel culture cuts down a lot of opportunities to have conversations. “I don’t believe in cancel culture,” Shigaki explained. “I think people should be allowed to make mistakes, I mean, I don’t think it should go on forever, but I just don’t see it as a way through, to changing some of our systems that have continued to repeat throughout time.”
She stated that one of her regrets was that she had not been able to talk to Barge after the incident.
When asked about what she hoped her art would bring, Shigaki stated she intended to offer healing for people through her art. She hopes to heal those around her by giving people a visible platform and sense of community through public art installations like “Never Again is Now.” Shigaki went on to say, “Like in my community, a lot of people who were incarcerated could never talk about that because it was so painful, the way that they were, you know, ripped away from communities, livelihoods, pets and everything. Everything that they had built.”
The people who were forced into these internment camps in the 1940s are called survivors. Shigaki told us that her father was one as well. “Many of them are in their eighties, so we are going to lose them, but we want the intergenerational trauma to continue to be healed.”
She asked what having such a complicated history does “to the psyche and dignity” of a person and how it “creates fear.”
The ceremony was just as much of a story of what’s happening now as it was about remembering the past. Some of the most timeless art is what connects us to our history.
When evaluating and measuring ourselves, Erin Shigaki asks, “What kind of ancestors do we want to be?”
