STAND. COM. REP. NO. 422

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1317

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Technology and the Arts and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 1317 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE JAPANESE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN HAWAII,"

 

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Make an appropriation for the planning, design, and construction of the Nisei Veterans Legacy Center and Honouliuli Internment Camp Educational Center, subject to the matching of state funds; and

 

     (2)  Allow the value of in-kind donations to be calculated in the matching amount, subject to verification by the Director of Finance.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii West Oahu, Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Japanese American Citizens League, Japan-America Society of Hawaii, and numerous individuals.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

 

     Your Committees find that a Nisei Veterans Legacy Center would preserve, perpetuate, and share the legacy of the Americans of Japanese ancestry who served in the United States Armed Forces in World War II.  The establishment of a Nisei Veterans Legacy Center would create a facility dedicated to researching, interpreting, and preserving the history of the Nisei veterans to develop a deeper understanding of these soldiers who fought valiantly against the Axis powers while having to combat racial prejudice and discrimination at home.  Locating a Nisei Veterans Legacy Center in West Oahu would complement academic and research programs offered at the University of Hawaii, such as the Center for Labor Education and Research's Archives and the Henry Giugni film collection.

 

     Your Committees further find that the Honouliuli Internment Camp is a major historical site located on property currently owned by Monsanto in West Oahu.  The United States National Park Service, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii – West Oahu, the State of Hawaii, Monsanto, and other stakeholders are working to preserve and share the existing remnants of the internment camp through a planned educational center and memorial.  In 2012, the Legislature established a Honouliuli advisory group to develop recommendations to help develop this site with government and private resources, and the group continues to meet.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Deleting the specific appropriation amount and leaving the appropriation amounts blank;

 

     (2)  Deleting the general appropriation language and creating two separate appropriations for fiscal years 2013-2014 and 2014-2015:  one appropriation for the Nisei Veterans Legacy Center and one appropriation for the Honouliuli Park Site Project;

 

     (3)  Requiring that the Advisory Group created by Act 235, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014 on the status of the Honouliuli Park Site Project, including funding;

 

     (4)  Requiring that the Department of Land and Natural Resources report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2014 on the status of the Nisei Veterans Legacy Center, including funding; and

 

     (5)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Technology and the Arts and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1317, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1317, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Technology and the Arts and Water and Land,

 

____________________________

MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair

 

____________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair