The Venice Japanese American Memorial Monument has arrived from India to Arvin, Kern County.
David Williams, certified memorialist and owner of Williams Monument Company, received the nine-foot, six-inch-tall solid granite obelisk, which weighs about 14,000 pounds.
He will engrave all four sides of the VJAMM with historical text, quotes from five former Manzanar incarcerees (Brian Tadashi Maeda, Arnold Tadao Maeda, Mae Kageyama Kakehashi, Amy Takahashi Ioki, and Yoshinori Tomita), acknowledgement of major donors (over $5,000), and the route to Manzanar National Historic Site.
Brian Maeda, a VJAMM Committee member, stopped in Arvin to see the obelisk on his way back to Los Angeles after a business trip up north.
For more information on the VJAMM, visit www.venicejamm.org.