Internment

I have been avoiding this topic for one reason: it is a can of worms. Once I start dealing with the internment of Japanese and Europeans in Hawaii, it could go on forever. I'm going to post them at intervals so as not to overwhelm you. The issue of internment and Japanese is incredibly complex in Hawaii. I'm not sure where to start. So, here we go step-by-step.

Within one week of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI detained 370 Japanese, 98 German and 14 Italians in Hawaii. An overwhelming majority of the Japanese detainees were men. That wasn't the case with the European; many were women.

During the course of the war 1441 persons of Japanese ancestry were picked up for internment in Hawaii. This was .9%. (Please note, it's not 9%, it is .9%)of the 160,000 Japanese living in Hawaii.

The fact that Europeans were interned in Hawaii (as on the Mainland) is a surprise to many people, even people of Italian, German and Austrian descent. If you take a look at it per capita, a many more Europeans were interned in Hawaii than Japanese.

As a bit of a refresher, you may want to take a look at the post on the list General Patton drew up for the seizure of Japanese. I wasn't able to cross the names on that list with the list of people who were actually picked up during the war. Maybe some fine history graduate student could do that.

PHOTO: The Immigration Station located on Ala Moana Boulevard was part of Fort Armstrong during the war. It was the first place that detainees were taken on December 7, 1941. Once the Sand Island camp opened, Fort Armstrong was closed down as an internment location.