Incarcerated Civilians of Honouliuli

A Note About Terminology

There is still much debate about how to address the people who were held in internment camps, their forceful removal from their homes, and if the term "internment camp" downplays the severity of what took place. Many people incorrectly refer to the American citizens forcefully detained as "internees"; internees were actually prisoners of war and foreign residents held against their will, usually in a camp built by a country with whom they are at war. Incarcerees refer to anyone regardless of citizenship held in a site for relocation, and incarcerated civilians or Americans specifically refer to American residents who were wrongfully imprisoned. If you would like to learn more about appropriate terminology, these are the guidelines to which the park service strives to abide.

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Over 2,000 American civilians, a majority of whom were Japanese Americans, were arrested and taken to holding sites throughout Hawai‘i. A majority would be sent to incarceration sites on the continent.

However, approximately 400 American citizens, mainly of Japanese descent, and 4000 foreign POWs were held at any given time at Honouliuli Internment Camp on O'ahu. This included military veterans and families with children. Honouliuli was named Hell Valley by those incarcerated to describe what life was like in camp.

Prior to detaining these Americans, the FBI had created a custodial detention list identifying people to arrest immediately at the beginning of a war. This list included Japanese Americans, Italians, and Germans residing in the Territory of Hawai‘i. Robert L. Shivers, head of Honolulu's FBI office at the time, even noted that "arrangements [were made for the]... specific handling of each and every individual alien German and Italian in the Hawaiian Islands", with the exception of the sick and elderly.

The Hawaiian Islands did not incarcerate its citizens under the authority of Executive Order 9066 like what occurred on the continent. Instead, the military operated using martial law, the first clear difference between the continent and Hawaiian incarceration experience.

Though people of Japanese ancestry were the focus of incarceration in Hawai‘i, people of Irish, Danish, Okinawan, German, and Italian ethnicity were also detained. These experiences at Honouliuli provide a stark lesson that wartime fear and hysteria can cast a wide and broad net.

This other marked difference in how a more diverse population was detained across the Hawaiian Islands one of several that distinguish incarceration of civilians from the continent. While 100% of the Japanese Americans along the west coast were incarcerated, less than 2% were detained in Hawai‘i, but the European Americans detained in Hawai‘i were targeted with "a stern and broad approach".

Due to the fact that few of the Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i were arrested, they ended up being stigmatized by their own communities upon release. It is hypothesized that because of this, the effects were more mentally devastating to those who had been incarcerated. The military imposed secrecy surrounding their detention of the hundreds of civilians that ended up at Honouliuli, unlike the continent where everyone in a family was taken together and were accused of treason regardless of age.

Despite differences with how incarceration on the continent and Hawai‘i was initiated, the resulting experiences were the same. These included military-induced incarceration that was ultimately founded to be rooted in racial prejudice, loss of economic properties and mental trauma, along with the removal of civil rights that civilians are typically guaranteed. These events highlighted how easy it is in times of crisis to devolve into wartime hysteria.

Our mission is to illuminate the stories lived at Honouliuli from all peoples. There are resources available to research if a family member may have been incarcerated in Hawai‘i and the continent.

For a complete list of Japanese civilians incarcerated at Honouliuli, please visit the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii's Hawai‘i Internee Directory

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People You May Know

• George Takei, actor, Rohwer Relocation Center, Tule Lake Reolcation Center
• Pat Morita, actor, Gila River Relocation Center, Tule Lake Relocation Center
• Norman Mineta, former Secretary of Transportation, Heart Mountain Relocation Center
• Alfred Preis, designer of the USS Arizona Memorial, Sand Island Dention Center
• Neil Fujita, godfather of graphic design, Hart Mountain Relocation Center
• Maternal grandfather (Shigeo Robert Muroda) of Colleen Hanabusa, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Sand Island Detention Center, Honouliuli Internment Camp
• Uncle (Dan Toru Nishikawa) of Jean Ariyoshi, former first lady of Hawai‘i, Sand Island Detention Center, Honouliuli Internment Camp