Vandalism of public art in Seattle’s Japantown ‘a punch in the gut’

The ink that blacked out the faces of a Japanese American woman and the sleeping toddler in her arms was the kind of hateful vandalism seemingly aimed at defacing not just public art but history itself.

That’s how it felt to Jeff Jiang, the interim director of the Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area. He was waiting to board a plane back to Seattle from San Francisco on Monday afternoon when he first learned an art installation commemorating the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II had been vandalized sometime over the weekend.

“It’s a punch in the gut,” said Jiang, who lives and works in the CID. “It’s sadness, just to kind of see that, especially on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. … I was feeling kind of helpless that I couldn’t just go out there and see it myself.”

The art installation in Nihonmachi Alley, located north of South Jackson Street between Sixth Avenue South and Maynard Avenue South, is actually two separate works. Both were smeared with black ink, with chapter and verse numbers for two Bible passages scrawled on one side of the alley wall.

The vandalism was first noticed by a building employee late Sunday and news of it spread through the neighborhood Monday, according to Jiang. It does not appear it was reported to Seattle police, said Detective Eric Muñoz, who on Tuesday couldn’t find a record of a vandalism report in the area.

Artwork defaced in Seattle’s Nihonmachi Alley

Sources: Esri, Chinatown-International District Business Improvement Area (Mark Nowlin / The Seattle Times)

A mural by Seattle artist Erin Shigaki, titled “Never Again Is Now,” is on the alley’s east wall and includes life-size photos of a mother and child and an honor roll of Japanese Americans who were confined at the Minidoka incarceration camp in Idaho and still volunteered to fight with the U.S. Army.

On the west wall, there are historic photos and artistic renderings of a theater, restaurant, confectioner and grocer whose owners were incarcerated during the war but returned to Seattle to resume their businesses after their release. The untitled work, which includes informational panels about the history of Japantown, was created by Seattle artist Amy Nikaitani, who died in 2019.

The Wing Luke Museum was one of the sponsors of the public artworks, which were installed in 2018 and 2019, according to Stephen McLean, a museum spokesperson.

“Together the murals reinforce the resilience of the neighborhood, the businesses and the people whose lives, livelihoods and families were disrupted during the Japanese American incarceration,” McLean said. “This alley is significant because it is located in this neighborhood that still exists today.”

Jiang said his organization’s sanitation manager met with employees from Seattle Surface Cleaners, which the CID BIA contracts with to remove graffiti in the neighborhood, to assess the damage on Monday.

“They went out there to kind of get an idea of, what was it? Was it paint? Was it ink? Because it’s art, we want to preserve it as much as we can,” Jiang explained.

They determined it was black ink and on Tuesday safely applied a chemical cleaner to the artwork and used a pressure washer to scour the ink away, he said. There does not appear to be lasting damage.

Though Jiang said he’s angry about the vandalism, he also feels sympathy for the culprit.

“To go through this much effort, to waste that much ink on covering up someone’s face, cover up history, write these Bible verses, they need help,” he said. “I’m not saying I forgive them.”

Citing the resiliency of the neighborhood, which has seen its share of hate crimes, violence and street disorder, Jiang also urged the larger community to frequent the neighborhood’s restaurants and businesses to counter the perception that the CID and Little Saigon are dangerous places.

“We are a cultural icon so what we need is the love, attention and for people just to come here, eat here, shop here,” he said. “The way I think about fear is, you don’t run away. We want the whole city, we want everyone to come here and show the CID and Little Saigon compassion.”