Message #132254

[Bianca]

Giving public access



Tomorrow marks the 66th anniversary of the opening of the Honouliuli Internment Camp.

Nationally, 120,000 men, women and children, mostly Japanese, were incarcerated in internment camps. Taken to the camps without formal charges or trials, they were there because they were the same race as the enemy.

About 1,400 people, both citizens and resident aliens, were interned in Hawai'i. About 100 were of Italian descent, the rest Japanese. Honouliuli, the largest of eight locations and the last to be occupied, housed about 300. Honouliuli also served as a prisoner-of-war camp for an untold number of others.

Jane Kurahara, a JCCH volunteer who has spent a decade on the project, said that when a center is established, "I would hope that (visitors) would take away from it that it is critical we treat each other with respect and dignity, the way we would want to treat ourselves, no matter how different we are."

She noted that the cultural center's mission is to preserve the legacy of the Japanese in Hawai'i.

The hope of the cultural center team is to have Honouliuli designated as a historic site managed by the National Park Service, another government agency, or a preservation group.

Meanwhile, project supporters are hopeful that federal funding will soon be made available for development of the Honouliuli site.

Niiya said the cultural center has two goals for the site — preservation and public access.

"The ideal would be a park and a visitor center where people can gather ... as well as actual access to the site," Niiya said.