Construction has began on a brand new middle to memorialize and have fun the Santa Maria Valley’s Japanese pioneers, many of whom noticed their lives uprooted once they have been despatched to internment camps 80 years in the past.
The new middle will sit close to the historic Smith-Enos house on the Enos Ranch improvement between College Drive and Bradley Road.
As plans moved ahead, town fashioned a partnership with the nonprofit Santa Maria Japanese Community Center to memorialize generations of residents in the Santa Maria Valley greater than 80 years after they have been despatched to internment camps throughout World War II.
“I can’t believe we finally made it to the groundbreaking,” stated Wes Koyama, president of the SMJCC. “It took a lot of hard work and patience from a lot of people assembled here to make this day possible.”
He recalled that in 1925, first-generation Japanese residents…