Honouliuli National Historic Site

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Honouliuli Internment Camp
Honouliuli National Historic Site is located in Hawaii
Honouliuli National Historic Site
Location of Honouliuli Internment Camp in Hawaii
Area122.5 acres (49.6 ha)[1]
Built1943 (1943)
Governing bodyNational Park Service
Official nameHonouliuli National Monument
DesignatedFebruary 19, 2015
Official nameHonouliuli Internment Camp
DesignatedFebruary 21, 2012
Reference no.09000855[2]


The Honouliuli Internment Camp, Hawaiʻi's largest and longest-operating internment camp, opened in 1943 and closed in 1946. Located near Waipahu on the island of Oʻahu, the site was designated Honouliuli National Monument by Presidential Proclamation on February 19, 2015 by President Barack Obama.[4] The internment camp held 320 internees and also became the largest prisoner of war camp in Hawai‘i with nearly 4,000 individuals being held. Of the seventeen sites that were associated with the history of internment in Hawaiʻi during World War II, the camp was the only one built specifically for prolonged detention.[5][6][7][8] As of 2015, the new national monument is without formal services and programs.[9]

Construction and operation

Run by the U.S. Army, the camp's supervisor was Captain Siegfried Spillner.[10] The camp was constructed on 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land near Ewa on the island of Oahu to hold internees transferred from the soon-to-close Sand Island camp.[11] It opened in March 1943.[12] An 8-foot (2.4 m) dual barbed-wire fence enclosed the camp, and a company of military police stood guard from its eight watchtowers.[13] The isolated location in a deep gulch led Japanese American internees to nickname it jigoku dani (地獄谷, "hell valley").[14]

The camp was designed to hold 3,000 people. At one time it held 320 U.S. civilians.[13][15] It was divided by barbed wire into sections, intended to separate internees by gender, nationality, and military or civilian status. By August 1943, there were 160 Japanese Americans and 69 Japanese interned there, according to the report of a colonel from the Swedish Legation who inspected the camp under the Geneva Convention.

Eventually, the camp held more than 4,000 Okinawans, Italians, German Americans,[1] Koreans, and Taiwanese as well.[13] The first Korean prisoners were believed to have arrived in late 1943 or early 1944; they comprised non-combatant laborers captured during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. A Korean-language newsletter, the Free Press for Liberated Korea (자유한인보), was written and mimeographed by three Korean soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army interned in the camp; it continued publication until December 1945.[12] Beginning in 1943, the Japanese American internees were either released on parole or transferred to Department of Justice camps on the mainland. After the third transfer in November 1944, twenty-one U.S. civilians remained in Honouliuli and the camp served primarily as a holding center for POWs. At the end of the war, some 4,000 POWs were confined at Honouliuli; repatriation efforts began in December 1945 and continued into 1946.[13]

Closure and aftermath

After the camp's closure, the land was purchased by the Oahu Sugar Company, which already grew sugar on adjacent lands.[6][16] However, they did not grow sugar on the camp land itself, but rather let others use it as a dumping ground for wrecked cars.[16] Campbell Estate later acquired the land and rented it out to farmers for cultivation.[6] Some former barracks were converted into vacation cabins.[17] In 2007, the Monsanto Corporation purchased the land.[18]

The fact that the land had once held an internment camp was largely forgotten until the late 1990s, when Jane Kurahara, a volunteer from the Japanese Cultural Center, began a search for it; she located it in 2002 by tracing an aqueduct in the background of an old photo.[6] The efforts to learn more about the camp's history attracted the attention of archaeologist Jeff Burton, an expert on Japanese American internment in the mainland; he visited the camp site in February 2006 to conduct a preliminary survey, including mapping the foundations of old barracks.[7] The survey concluded that the camp was eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.[18] It was added to the register on February 21, 2012.[2]

On July 6, 2012, Governor Neil Abercrombie signed Senate Bill 2678 into law, creating an advisory group to develop and present recommendations for an educational resource center to lawmakers in the next legislative session. The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi, whose president said the signing will "help ensure ... that history will be preserved and taught for future generations", conducts public tours of the former camp. Two buildings and some other remnants still remain at the site, which current-owner Monsanto is interested in transferring to the National Park Service.[19][20]

Notable internees

Notes

  1. ^ a b Burton, Jeffery F.; Farrell, Mary M. (May 9, 2011). "National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Honouliuli Internment Camp" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved August 3, 2014. The camp was built to intern German American and Japanese American citizens and long-term Hawaiian resident aliens as well as POWs captured during military operations during World War II.
  2. ^ a b "Weekly List of Actions Taken on Properties: 2/27/2012 through 3/2/2012". National Park Service. March 9, 2012. Retrieved March 15, 2012.
  3. ^ "Honouliuli Gulch and Associated Sites Draft Special Resource Study And Environmental Assessment". National Park Service. Retrieved 19 February 2015.
  4. ^ President Obama to Designate Honouliuli Internment Camp as a National Monument, Hawaii News Now, Melanie Yamaguchi, February 18, 2015. Retrieved 19 February 2014.
  5. ^ Executive summary (Spring 2014) "Draft Honouliuli Gulch and Associated Sites Special Resource Study" National Park Service
  6. ^ a b c d Gordon, Mike (2005-11-27), "Wartime stain in history retraced in O'ahu's brush", The Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 2009-12-10
  7. ^ a b Gordon, Mike (2006-02-05), "Under Honouliuli brush, dark history", The Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 2009-12-10
  8. ^ Memoili, Michaele (2015-02-18), "Obama making WWII internment camp in Hawaii a national monument", Los Angeles Times, retrieved 2015-02-18
  9. ^ "Management" Honouliuli National Monument website National Park Service Retrieved 19 February 2015
  10. ^ Hirose 1993, p. 167
  11. ^ Kashima 2003, p. 84
  12. ^ a b c Choe 2009
  13. ^ a b c d Rosenfeld, Alan. "Honouluili" Densho Encyclopedia. Retrieved June 13, 2014.
  14. ^ a b c Chun, Gary C. W. (2009-12-07), "Exhibit shows the harsh life of Honouliuli internment camp", Honolulu Star-Bulletin, retrieved 2009-12-10
  15. ^ Gordon, Mike (2008-03-03), "WWII internment camp revisited", The Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 2009-12-10
  16. ^ a b Kashima 2003, p. 86
  17. ^ Wilson, Christie (2008-02-17), "Clues sought to Honouliuli's dark past", The Honolulu Advertiser, retrieved 2009-12-10
  18. ^ a b "Hope for a Visitor's Center at Honouliuli May Become Reality", Pacific Citizen, 2009-03-09, retrieved 2009-12-11
  19. ^ Bernardo, Rosemarie (July 7, 2012). "Bill recognizes internment site". Honolulu Star-Advertiser. p. B1.
  20. ^ Barton, Justin (July 5, 2014) "Historic Preservation: Using Technology to Build Heritage Advocacy" LiDAR News Spatial Media LLC, Frederick, MD
  21. ^ Pak 1967

Sources

Further reading

External links

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