The aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor

            “Yesterday, December 7, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

            These well-known words are the opening line of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to Congress on December 8, 1941, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese airplanes. This address was made by President Roosevelt to request that Congress declare war on the Empire of Japan for their unprecedented yet clearly intentional attack on the United States, and it was the first step of a rapid growth of anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States of America.

            During the spring of 1942, following Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt’s address Congress, America’s entry into World War II, and an official edict from the president, almost 120,000 Japanese-American citizens were forced to leave their homes on the West Coast of America—primarily from California, Oregon, Arizona, and Washington—as well as some of the Japanese population of Hawaii, and enter government or military-controlled internment camps. Approximately 112,000 of all of these prisoners were from the West Coast, and made up less than two percent of the population of the aforementioned states.

However, in Hawaii, internment worked differently than on mainland America. Because there was such a high concentration of Japanese and Japanese-Americans in Hawaii (approximately 32% of the islands’ population), those who were interned were primarily “religious leaders, local business owners and people… who went to school in Japan (SOURCE).” This removed the entire system of leadership from a huge community on Hawaii. It was a selective process that targeted the most influential members of the Japanese/Japanese-American community on the islands, yet was also very strategic.

These community leaders, as well as many other people of Japanese ancestry, were rounded up beginning just hours after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Those who were actually interned were primarily the male leaders of the community, although a handful of women were imprisoned as well. According to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai’i, “[this] abrupt aftermath diminished the quality of life for many local Japanese, stripping dignity and separating families. Children often had minimal contact with their fathers, and many people didn’t even know if their loved ones were alive long after they were taken away (SOURCE).”

Sand Island Internment Camp

There were two major internment camps in Hawaii. The first camp was the Sand Island camp. It initially housed its prisoners in tents for a full six months before the barracks were completed. In February of 1942, the government decided to move the Sand Island internees to Mainland camps, and gave their families the option to join them. Over 1,000 women and children followed their loved ones to camps in Texas, California, and Arkansas.

Honouliuli Internment Camp

The second Hawai’i internment camp was the Honouliuli camp, which was opened on March 1, 1943. It was situated in a gulch in the center of O’ahu, but was only one of five local sites used to house local Japanese who had not been convicted of any specific crimes but were still being detained by the United States government. Honouliuli’s location was kept secret, but was rediscovered in 2002 by volunteers from the Japanese Cultural Center; President Obama declared it a national monument in February of 2015. The 160 acres that Honouliuli spanned are now covered in heavy foliage, but it was once patrolled by armed guards, and “lined with double barbed-wire fences and guard towers (SOURCE).” It is unclear how many prisoners were kept in Honouliuli; the camp was built to house 3,000 people, but some say that its population reached 3,200, while others say it may have peaked at as high as 4,000 occupants.

Those who were interned in Honouliuli were allowed visits by their families. These families would board buses in downtown Honolulu, then would be blindfolded before the drive to the gulch where Honouliuli was located. Additionally, since “engaging in Japanese cultural activities became a sign of disloyalty, many traditions were suppressed (SOURCE).” This suppression affected multiple generations following the actual internment. Many subjects of internment find the experiences too painful to talk about, although some insist that it is “important to preserve this history for younger generations and to document it as thoroughly as possible to prevent similar discriminatory acts from happening again (SOURCE).”

Sources:

Roosevelt, Franklin D. "Request for a Declaration of War." Annals of American History. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

Rostow, Eugene V. "Our Worst Wartime Mistake." Annals of American History. N.p., n.d.

Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

Solomon, Molly. "Once Lost, Internment Camp In Hawaii Now A National Monument." NPR.

NPR, 16 Mar. 2015. Web. 14 Feb. 2017.

"The Untold Story." The Untold Story | JCCH - HAWAII INTERNMENT CAMP. N.p., n.d. Web.

14 Feb. 2017.