Life in Honouliuli Internment Camp

Also on this page:

• Art and Culture in the Camps
• Impacts on Family

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Historic overlay illustrating the layout of Honouliuli Internment and POW Camp

National Register Boundary (NPS), Historic and Modern Features by Jeff Burton and Mary Farrell

Layout of the Camp

Honouliuli internment camp was divided into seven separate compounds and bisected by a sugar plantation-era aqueduct that predated the camp's construction. The aqueduct kept the prisoners of war (POW) and civilians separated from one another. Old Army maps depicting the plans for Honouliuli show the compounds labeled with roman numerals I-VII, with compounds I-IV and VII used for POWs, compound V for civilian inarcerees, and compound VI for Army administration. The blueprints also depict a total of 150 buildings in the camp.

Archaeological digs led by archaeologists Jeff Burton and Mary Farrell uncovered the existence of water and sewer systems, restrooms, and foundations of buildings like the mess hall and showers. The remnants of guard towers were also discovered, the holes where the posts once sat now rusted and worn with time. Photographs of the area also depict manmade sidewalks leading to and from various buildings, some even made by the imprisoned themselves.

A key feature that indicated the site of Honouliuli had been found was the still-standing historic rock wall that can clearly be seen in historic photographs of the camp when operational. The wall stands on the right-hand side of the road, down the guard's entrance and has recently been reinforced, as age and sediment buildup had caused the stones to buckle and crack.

There were two main roads that led into Honouliuli, one that the guards and officials used, and the other that the detained were driven down, the former of which is still used by the park service today to enter the site. The Army also had coral bedrock shipped in to reinforce the roads that can still be seen in certain areas.

 

A view of daily life at Honouliuli Internment Camp Compound V, circa 1945

Photo by R.H. Lodge, courtesy Hawaii’s Plantation Village

Day-to-Day Life for Japanese American Civilians

Each day, the incarcerees and internees were woken to the call of a bugle at 6:00 AM. They were then lined up in rows of two where the guards would do a roll call of the prisoners. Often times, the guards would miscount the number of people and force them to stand in the sweltering heat to repeat the roll call until the numbers came back accurately.

Following roll call, breakfast was served in the mess halls at 7:00 AM for an hour, then people would disperse to complete their menial jobs for the day that helped keep them occupied. These jobs paid less than a dollar a day (a typical salary was 10 cents a day) and they were constantly being monitored while performing them by the military police. People whose jobs outside the camp came with specialized skills continued to perform those jobs inside the camp, such as barbers, tailors, doctors and dentists. Small luxuries could be bought using the money earned in the camps, such as cigarettes and candies.

Men were allowed to shave once a week with razors provided by the military that had to be returned once finished, and washing stations were available to clean the clothes which quickly became soiled from the dusty, hot environment. Archaeological digs revealed the use of shower buildings that prisoners used to clean themselves.

Each night at 9:00 PM, the sound of the bugle once again indicated that the day was over and the incarcerees needed to head to bed.

Everybody's activities were monitored closely by the armed guards at the camp at all times, either on the ground or in watchtowers. The 372nd Infantry unit was posted at Honouliuli to fill this role. Segregation divided African American units from Caucasian units in the military in the 1940s, and many times the African American units were handed support roles. The 372nd Infantry was one such unit. A victim of racial discrimination themselves, they were the ones tasked to keep an eye on the "enemy" Japanese Americans.

The Office of the Military Governer gave a report in 1943 that also illuminated some of the facilities on the Japanese civilian side of the camp:

The kitchen and mess hall for Japanese internees is equipped to feed up to one thousand internees. The internees live in prefabricated sixteeen-man de-mountable barracks. All latrines have modern plumbing with hot and cold showers. A post exchange is available for the purchase of cigarettes, tobacco, and miscellaneous items for sale. There is also a tailor shop, an equipped dental office, and a dispensary for necessary medical treatment. A recreation field as been cleared and fenced in for the use of the internees...

Life in the European Civilian Compound

Not much is known about the day-to-day activities in the areas where European Americans were detained. Their numbers were far less than the Japanese civilians incarcerated so records are few.

Doris Berg Nye, whose German American parents and older sister were imprisoned at Honouliuli, gave details of her parents experience. She described that their tent had a wooden floor and her father had fashioned a porch with an awning and grew morning glories.

Unlike the Japanese civilian side, they were able to do their own laundry in a communal area where people would boil water to wash their clothes. No washboards were provided, however, and all washing was done by hand then hung to dry in the sun.

The Children at Honouliuli

At least ten children were recorded to have been interned at Honouliuli between the ages of two to fourteen years of age. Many of the children were likely siblings due to records showing only five different surnames for all children. Further investigation into the records confirm the presence of children at the camp due to memos requesting diapers and photos, including ID photos where young teenage girls had shaved heads in their picture. Some of these children and the parents were picked up in Saipan in the Mariana Islands, but most were either from Ishikawa or Shizuoka prefecture in Japan.

The Internal Fight

Like the continent, one of the greatest threats to the psyche was the ever-present feeling of boredom. Learning how to occupy oneself was a critical skill to survival when living in small living quarters with nowhere to go for personal space.

Many took this time as an opportunity to enhance skills they knew would be necessary moving forward, so groups were formed to practice English and to read English language books. Others found the power of music healing and would sing songs together and practice guitar.

One song in particular, "Chinrai bushi", which was a well-known Japanese song at the time, had lyrics written at Sand Island Detention Center to reflect being sent away on a ship to the mainland. Honouliuli residents sang this song to their fellow incarcerated friends who would leave Hawaiʻi and be sent away to a camp on the continent.

People also became very creative and resourceful with the items on hand, too. Some of the most impressive items that came out of Honouliuli internment camp were crafted by Masao "Sam" Nishimura. He took toothbrushes and would soften the material using hot water, then would bend the malleable plastic around a rod to create a ring. Using sandpaper and makeshift tools, he would carve down the body of the toothbrush to create a "gem" focal point of the rings. These toothbrush rings are works of art that prove the resiliency of those incarcerated in the face of perpetual boredom.

Games and gambling were also commonplace in the camps. Sanji Abe, the first Japanese American elected to the senate, was incarcerated at Honouliuli and had a penchant for the game Go. His family brought his Go board to the camp upon his request one visiting day, and he and fellow incarceree Jack Tasaka would play Go together and teach the others who lived in their compound. Tasaka firmly believed that how you play Go reflects your values. Often times the men would wager their daily earnings or coupons on games of Go or Mahjong. Go in particular was also enjoyed by the Korean POWs as a way to pass time.

Lack of nutrition in the camp inspired groups to start a vegetable garden. Both Okinawan POWs and incarcerated civilians took the time to request seeds from the military, and they spent weeks cultivating the earth and eventually produced a healthy supply of a variety of vegetables on military police land. Wanting to bring them to their own compound for consumption, the military refused to let them do so.

Doris Berg Nye's parents were also allowed a vegetable garden, but they were allowed to grow it right outside their tent and could consume the fruits of their labor.

 

We collected our coupons and asked our guard to buy some seeds for us. We went to the ground... and cultivated lettuce, radish, and others... They were finally ready to be harvested... [The guards] told us we could not bring any vegetables back to camp. After all [that], we could not eat any of them.

—Dan Toru Nishikawa, Honouliuli incarceree

 

Family Visits

After a period of isolation, families were permitted to visit their loved ones in Honouliuli once or twice a month on Sundays. These essential visits reminded incarcerees of why they had to remain strong and endure their unjust circumstance. During visits, gifts were sometimes exchanged between the family members. The arts and crafts that came out of the camps were often created by incarcerated civilians to give to their children. Visits would last for up to an hour, and tears were always shed during the goodbyes.

Some incarcerees actively chose not to see their loved ones during visiting days because they feared seeing them would only feed their longing and loneliness while in the camps. Others had no visitors at all, partially because many of the men incarcerated were typically the sole providers for their family. With them gone, it was up to the spouse left behind to step into that role which proved difficult when there were numerous children to raise, elderly to care for, and most places would not hire those of Japanese descent.

Nevertheless, visiting days brought hope and comfort to those who could once again hold their spouse's hand and see their children, if only for a moment.

 

Tanka Poem by Yasutaro Keiho Soga

This poem is featured in A Resilient Spirit: The Voice of Hawaii's Internees

暁月の 虚ろ心に 妻来たり 手と手を触れて 夢覚めにけり

As I doze at dawn, My wife comes to me Our hands lightly touch, The dream is no more

 

Aftermath

Upon their release from the camp, prisoners of war were repatriated back to their home countries.

American civilians who were incarcerated at Honouliuli were often faced with suspicion when they returned home. To their peers, they had been arrested for being a traitor to America. Because not all Japanese Americans were detained like on the continent, there was no shared understanding of the injustices inflicted upon the incarcerated. For example, Sam Nishimura bitterly recalled how after he had been released from Honouliuli, his friends would only visit him at night out of shame of being seen with him, an act that left Nishimura feeling angry and betrayed.

The transition back to normalcy for many former incarcerees at Honouliuli proved difficult as a result.

Read the Hawai‘i chapter of the commission report that led to the apology and reparations for Japanese Americans