Honouliuli Internment CampHonouliuli National Historic Site is located on land that, during World War II, served as the largest and longest-used confinement site in the Hawaiian Islands for US citizens and residents of Japanese and European ancestry arbitrarily suspected of disloyalty following the attacks on Pearl Harbor. World War II Incarceration and Martial Law in Hawai‘iEarly on December 7, 1941, as the Japanese military attacked Pearl Harbor, government officials began selectively rounding up Hawai‘i residents suspected of disloyalty. They were incarerated at local jails, courthouses, and facilities on six of the main Hawaiian Islands. Roughly 800 people were incarcerated and eventually transported to the U.S. Immigration Station and the Sand Island Detention Camp on O'ahu in this early period. Nearly all the incarcerees were of Japanese descent; they included influential leaders of the Japanese American community who were educated, were teachers or priests, or had access to means of communication with Japan or to transportation from Hawai‘i. Most civilians apprehended in the initial years of the War would be sent to the mainland to live out the duration of the war in Department of Justice and War Relocation Authority camps. The opening of Honouliuli Internment Camp in March of 1943 provided an alternate to mainland transfer, as the camp was designed for the express purpose of confining incarcerees and prisoners of war for longer periods of time. Mass Incarceration on the MainlandMeanwhile on the United States mainland, all individuals of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were forced from their homes by military exclusion orders following Executive Order 9066, issued on February 19, 1942. They were rounded up and sent to temporary detention centers and then to isolated large-scale camps located throughout the western states and Arkansas, where most would spend the duration of the war years. The mass incarceration of 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry was the largest forced removal of people in the history of the United States. Prisoners of War in Honouli‘uliHonouliuli served as both a base camp and a transfer point for prisoners of war from both the Atlantic and Pacific Theatres. Five of the seven camp sections were created to serve as prisoner of war compounds, and eventually held prisoners from Japan, Okinawa, Korea, Taiwan and Italy. At its peak, facilities at the camp were capable of accommodating 4,000 prisoners of war, with conditions of imprisonment dependent upon factors such as ethnic background, political status and reputation. A substantial number of the prisoners held at Honouliuli were non-combatant labor conscripts. A Presidential ApologyBoth the selective incarceration in Hawai‘i and the mass incarceration on the mainland created a social stigma that was borne by Japanese Americans both during and after the war. The impacts on the targeted individuals and their families would last their lifetimes. |
Last updated: February 17, 2023