Seattle Now A defaced mural becomes permanent at Bellevue College
Mar 17, 2026
Erin Shigaki, a Seattle artist who creates public work about Japanese American incarceration and social justice, joins to discuss her mural 'Never Again Is Now.' She talks about the mural's erasure controversy, the decision to permanently rededicate and protect the piece, and plans to expand interpretation and campus outreach. Short reflections on trust, vandalism risk, and using the work for teaching conclude the conversation.
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Rededication As Institutional Reckoning
- Bellevue College permanently rededicating Erin Shigaki's mural acknowledges institutional responsibility for censoring history about Japanese American incarceration.
- The rededication follows the 2020 whiteout of a factual sentence naming Miller Freeman and led to administrative resignations, making the act corrective and symbolic.
Using Dorothea Lange Photo To Center Children's Trauma
- Shigaki based the mural image on a Dorothea Lange photograph to capture children's fear and uncertainty in the early incarceration camps.
- Choosing children emphasizes how state decisions forcibly jailed families and traumatized minors.
Incarceration As Ongoing Chain Of State Violence
- Shigaki frames Japanese American incarceration as part of a long chain of state violence including slavery and Indian boarding schools.
- She connects past incarcerations to current ICE detention centers to show continuity in policy and harm.