The internees, including former internee Congressman Mike Honda (D-San Jose), were joined Saturday by several hundred family, friends and dignitaries for the unveiling of the sculpture of a young girl clutching a doll sitting on top of a pile of suitcases. Titled, “Never Again,” the sculpture was inspired by the “bring only what you could carry” order that limited each internee to a single suitcase or duffle bag. Each piece of luggage has a tag with a family identification number.

Behind the sculpture is a wall containing most of the names of the 4,669 Japanese Americans who were sent to the Assembly Center from Merced County and other Northern California communities during the summer of 1942. Above the six plaques of names are the words “To Remember Is To Honor.”

About 1,000 of the internees were children and that was what inspired the sculpture by Dale Smith of Berkeley. The model for the statue was Mia Furuichi Fong, 4½, of Oakland, whose family has ties to the Japanese-American community in Livingston.

Looking at the sculpture of the young girl, June Abe Kawamura said it reminded her of what she looked like when she came to the Merced Assembly Center when she was 7 years old. “That could have been me,” she said of the likeness. Kawamura was one of eight children from a family of farmers in Broderick, near Sacramento, who later went on to the Amache Internment Camp in Granada, Colo., where she and many others were confined during World War II. The 74-year-old woman said she was glad to see the long-awaited memorial but sad because she wished her parents could have lived to see it. “They were the ones who really suffered.”

Operated by the Wartime Civil Control Administration, the Merced Assembly Center barracks and community buildings were erected in 11 days in the spring of 1942 and held 4,669 people from May through September that year. The internees were shipped to Amache, one of 10 relocation centers in the West. Many young men enlisted or were drafted into the United States military, serving their country while their families were detained in the camps.

The dedication came almost two years after Congressman Dennis Cardoza (D-Merced) began working with the Japanese American Citizens League and the Merced Assembly Center Commemorative Committee to bring a memorial to the fairgrounds.

For information, call the fair office at 722-1507, fax at 722-3773, email to info@MercedCountyFair.com or visit the 2010 Merced County Fair’s website, www.MercedCountyFair.com