World War II Database

Contributor: David Stubblebine

ww2dbaseDuring World War II, Presidential Executive Order 9066 authorized displacing all people of Japanese ancestry on the west coast of the United States to locations farther east. In the Territory of Hawai'i, however, no Executive Order was needed because before the sun set the day of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the entire island group was placed under martial law. At that time, Hawai'i had nearly 160,000 people of Japanese descent amounting to about 40% of Hawai'i’s population. This was the result of aggressive immigration efforts by Hawai'i’s sugar interests starting in the 1850s. As tensions were building in 1940 and 1941, federal officials in Hawai'i identified certain Japanese clergy, teachers, businessmen, and other community leaders who the officials believed could be hostile to the United States. Once martial law was declared after the Japanese attack, those individuals were quickly taken into custody.

ww2dbaseBy 9 Dec 1941, two days after the attack and 72 days before President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorities in Hawai'i had 473 people in custody. Almost all were men of Japanese ancestry plus a few Germans and Italians. Initially, most internees were held in local jails on six different islands, at the U.S. Immigration Station in Honolulu, or at the Honolulu Military Police Station. The Army also set up a tent city with space for 600 people inside a fenced enclosure on Sand Island in Honolulu Harbor.

ww2dbaseThe Sand Island camp and the local jails were adequate for the short term while a larger, more permanent facility was built. 160 acres in the Honouliuli Gulch overlooking O'ahu’s 'Ewa Plain was selected as a suitable site for a camp. Almost invisible in a depression in 'Ewa’s expansive sugar cane fields, construction of the camp began in early 1942. Built to house over 3,000 detainees, the Honouliuli camp had a dual purpose; to hold domestic internees such as the Japanese, Germans, and Italians and also to serve as a prisoner-of-war camp, which comprised most of the camp. On 1 Mar 1943, the Honouliuli Internment & Prisoners of War Camp opened with the transfer of all of Sand Island’s 149 internees (Sand Island would only hold POWs after that). From the day it opened and throughout the war, Honouliuli was the largest camp of its type in the Territory of Hawai'i.

ww2dbaseHonouliuli consisted of 175 buildings supplemented by 400 tents and was bordered by a fence-line with 14 guard towers. The camp was divided into seven distinct, securely separated compounds. One compound was set aside for the Army guards, five compounds were for prisoners of war, and one compound was for the domestic civilian internees. The civilian compound was further divided by national heritage and gender. Each compound included a mess hall capable of seating 1,000 people. Barracks in the civilian compound, but not the POW compounds, had electricity for radios and other small appliances; however, the lights throughout the camp were turned off at night to comply with the island’s strict blackout restrictions.

ww2dbaseOn a regular basis, Honouliuli was visited by international inspectors who filed favorable reports. The camp was inspected at least three times by Swedish Vice-Consul Gustaf Olson who noted the kitchens were well outfitted and food was the “best quality.” He particularly noted improvements made by the Japanese American detainees themselves, such as clearing pathways or adding modest bits of landscaping. Olson met with elected detainee representatives who reported the “humane treatment received from camp guards.” Red Cross Inspectors also visited Honouliuli in 1945 and described accommodations as “excellent.”

ww2dbaseBut a gilded cage is still a cage. Honouliuli Gulch was in the island’s central plain and was thick with mosquitoes. The depression of the gulch shielded the camp from any breeze and the grounds baked in the tropical sun. Honouliuli Stream trickling through the gulch combined with high heat and no breeze to ensure the gulch always had high humidity. For the civilian internees who had previously been leading very purposeful lives in Hawai'i, Honouliuli was also filled with an oppressive boredom. The Japanese internees came to call Honouliuli jigoku dani (地獄谷) or hell valley.

ww2dbaseThe precise numbers of domestic internees held at Honouliuli are difficult to establish. Many internees were transferred to and from neighboring islands, or to camps in the continental United States, or were released on parole (so long as they signed waivers absolving the government from any liability for their confinement). The camp population was always fluctuating but generally 250 to 450 domestic internees were held there at any one time. The POW population, however, swelled closer to 4,000 with prisoners from Japan, Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea, and Italy.

ww2dbaseOverall, about 2,300 Hawaiian civilians were interned during the war, most of them of Japanese ancestry. The interned Japanese Hawaiians represented less than 2% of Hawai'i’s Japanese population. Authorities in Hawai'i were under great pressure from Washington to intern all Hawaiians of Japanese descent. However, local officials, most notably Army General Delos Emmons, Hawai'i’s military governor, and Robert Shivers, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s agent in charge in Honolulu, resisted the idea as being impractical and unnecessary. Not all of the Japanese internees from Hawai'i went through Honouliuli, however, with most spending the war at camps in the continental United States.

ww2dbaseOn 24 Oct 1944, martial law in Hawai'i was lifted. By this time, Honouliuli was almost exclusively a POW camp with few domestic internees remaining. With the war’s end on 15 Aug 1945, efforts began to repatriate the POWs, a process that continued into 1946. Once the camp was empty of prisoners, the Army bulldozed most of the buildings and walked away. Honouliuli Gulch was unsuitable for growing the sugar cane that surrounded it so the 160 acres that had been the camp were quickly reclaimed by vegetation and forgotten.

ww2dbaseIn the late 1990s, members of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i became interested in the history of the Honouliuli camp but by then, no one knew precisely where the camp had been. Even with the help of former internees, researchers had difficulty locating the site. It was not until 2002 that the few remnants of the camp were discovered beneath the gulch’s thick overgrowth. Efforts began almost immediately to preserve and protect the site because of its historical significance. On 24 Feb 2005, 73 years to the day after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, President Barack Obama signed a proclamation establishing Honouliuli Gulch as a National Monument (later redesignated as a National Historic Site). The site is administered by the National Park Service and though research and archeology continue at Honouliuli Gulch, as of 2024 the site is not yet open to the public.

Honouliuli Gulch Internment and Prisoners of War Camp Interactive Map

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