Honouliuli National Historic Site

Honouliuli National Historic Site

Company type	National Historic Site
Industry	Historical preservation, cultural heritage
Founded	March 1943 (1943-03) (internment camp)
Defunct	1946 (1946)
Headquarters	Waipahu, Oahu , United States
Area served	Hawaii
Owner	National Park Service (since 2015)
Website	www.nps.gov/hono/index.htm

Honouliuli National Historic Site, situated near Waipahu on the island of Oahu, is home to Hawaiʻi's most extensive and longest-operating internment facility, the Honouliuli Internment Camp, which functioned from 1943 until 1946. It was initially declared a national monument on February 24, 2015, by President Barack Obama and later reclassified as a National Historic Site through the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act in 2019.

This camp accommodated 320 detainees and became the largest prisoner of war camp in Hawaiʻi, holding close to 4,000 individuals. While over 150,000 Japanese Americans lived in Hawaii during World War II, only between 1,200 and 1,800 were confined within the territory. Among seventeen internment-related locations across Hawaiʻi, Honouliuli was unique as the sole facility constructed for extended incarceration.

As of 2015, the site did not offer official visitor amenities or educational programs.

Construction and operation

Located near Ewa and Waipahu on Oahu, the camp was established to accommodate internees relocated from the closing Sand Island camp. It began operations in March 1943. Surrounded by a double layer of barbed wire fencing and monitored by military police stationed in eight watchtowers, the U.S. Army managed the facility under Captain Siegfried Spillner. Due to its secluded position within a deep gulch, Japanese American detainees nicknamed it . Of all seventeen World War II internment sites in Hawaiʻi, Honouliuli stood out as the only one purpose-built for long-term detention.

Although designed to hold up to 3,000 individuals, it housed a maximum of 320 U.S. civilian internees at one time. The camp was sectioned off with barbed wire to separate detainees by gender, nationality, and whether they were military personnel or civilians. By August 1943, an inspection by a Swedish Legation colonel under the Geneva Convention recorded 160 Japanese Americans and 69 Japanese detainees residing there.

In total, Honouliuli held more than 4,000 individuals including Okinawans, Italians, German Americans, Koreans, and Taiwanese. The first Korean prisoners arrived between late 1943 and early 1944; these non-combatant laborers had been captured during the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaign. A Korean-language publication titled Free Press for Liberated Korea (자유한인보) was produced by three Korean soldiers formerly with the Japanese Imperial Army who were interned at Honouliuli until December 1945. Beginning in 1943, Japanese American internees were gradually freed or transferred to Department of Justice camps on the U.S. mainland. After November 1944, only twenty-one U.S. civilian detainees remained; thereafter the camp primarily housed POWs. At the conclusion of the war, approximately 4,000 prisoners of war were confined at Honouliuli; repatriation efforts commenced in December 1945 and continued through 1946.

Abandonment and recognition

Following the camp's shutdown, the Oahu Sugar Company leased the property from the Campbell Estate, cultivating sugar cane on nearby fields. In 2007, ownership of the land transferred to Monsanto Corporation.

Over time, as vegetation overtook the area and buildings fell into disrepair, the existence of Honouliuli Gulch as an internment site faded from public memory. In 2002, Jane Kurahara from the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi identified the location by following an aqueduct visible in a historic photograph. This discovery drew the attention of the National Park Service (NPS), which subsequently determined that the camp qualified for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Alongside Honolulu’s U.S. Immigration Station, it was a significant internment site in Hawaiʻi during World War II. The site was officially listed on February 21, 2012.

On July 6, 2012, an advisory committee was established by the state to propose an educational resource center to legislators. While only two buildings and some ruins remain, Monsanto showed willingness to transfer the property to the National Park Service. President Barack Obama designated the location as Honouliuli National Monument through a Presidential Proclamation on February 24, 2015. The official dedication ceremony took place on March 31, 2015, at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi, attended by prominent officials including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and Governor David Ige of Hawaiʻi.

Although formal visitor services are not yet established, the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi offers public tours and educational materials. Increased access is anticipated for both the University of Hawaiʻi – West Oʻahu and the Japanese Cultural Center under NPS administration. The John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, enacted on March 12, 2019, reclassified it as a national historic site, enabling federal funding for ongoing preservation and upkeep.

Notable internees

• Sanji Abe (1895–1982), legislator representing the Territory of Hawaiʻi
• Seishiro Okazaki (Henry) (1890–1951), founder of Danzan-ryū Jujutsu and renowned healer
• Thomas Sakakihara (1900–1989), legislator in the Territory of Hawaiʻi government
• Pak Sun-dong, conscripted into the Japanese Imperial Army, later employed by the US Office of Strategic Services and author of an acclaimed memoir
• Harry Urata (1917–2009), music educator; also interned at Tule Lake

In popular culture

The Honouliuli Internment Camp is depicted in "Ho'onani Makuakane" (season 4, episode 10) of the modern Hawaii Five-0 television series from the 2010s, centering on a homicide that took place at the camp.

Further reading

• Burton, Jeff F. and Farrell, Mary M. (December 2008), "Jigoku-Dani: An Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Honouliuli Internment Camp: Oʻahu Hawaiʻi" Tucson: Trans-Sierran Archaeological Research

External links

• Official site