Reviews of Honouliuli National Historic Site (Park)

Hope Reynolds

The Honouliuli internment camp, not far from Hawaii's Pearl Harbor held as many as 4,000 prisoners during World War II, including hundreds of Japanese-Americans. Internees didn't talk about it, the pain run so deep, they didn't share their own camp experience with their families. This part of history was almost lost. Unlike the internment camps on the mainland, the wartime incarceration of Japanese in Hawaii was done on a much smaller scale. Americans of Japanese ancestry (AJAs) who served the United States in World War II answered distrust and suspicion with unsurpassed service and sacrifice. AJAs, or Nisei, of the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team paid a bloody price in Europe to become the most decorated regiment in U.S. history. In the Pacific, Military Intelligence Service (MIS) AJAs made priceless but secret contributions to victory over Japan. Before the war, Japanese made up 37 percent of Hawaii’s population. The war’s final tally found AJAs were 63 percent of the Hawaii residents who died in service to the United States. Cultural values – duty, honor, mutual obligation – helped the Nisei succeed, but they left no doubt that they were Americans. Japan’s Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Oahu cast suspicion on all Japanese in America. Few mentioned the faithful service of 2,000 Nisei soldiers – former National Guardsmen and recent draftees – in Hawaii that day. One was Torao Migita, killed by friendly fire in Honolulu while on his way to report to Schofield Barracks. Also responding were University of Hawaii ROTC cadets, most of them Nisei, who became the nucleus of the Hawaii Territorial Guard (HTG). They were issued bolt-action rifles and five rounds apiece to guard key locations. Six weeks later, however, the HTG dismissed its Nisei members without explanation. Visit and learn from history!

cindy thayer

I wish I could have seen this, however it's still in the planning stages. You can see exhibits at the Japanese Culture in Honolulu.

David Lewis

It was aight