Nisei Veterans Memorial Center Exhibit Tells History of Japanese Internment on Maui

No. 910 Barracks at Honouliuli Internment Camp. R. H. Lodge photos from AR 19 Archival Collection. Photo credit: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i – Resource Center – Historical Photographs collection.

A new exhibit at the Nisei Veterans Memorial Center explores the history of Japanese internment on Maui.

The exhibit, “Internment: Stories from Maui,” features personal stories, photographs, and information on the two detention centers on the island.

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Executive Order 9066 authorizing the internment of Japanese Americans, German Americans, and Italian Americans to camps in the United States.

About 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry were interned.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, US military personnel began rounding up Japanese residents in Hawai’i who were considered influential in the community. Those detained included businessmen, priests, Japanese-language school teachers, and professionals.

Mauians including Kiyoji Hotta and Shigeru Murakami were interned in camps on the mainland while their sons, serving in the US army, lost their lives on the battlefield in Italy.

The exhibit is now open to the public from Monday through Friday from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. until Feb. 28.

For more information, contact Deidre Tegarden at (808) 244-6862 or at deidre@nvmc.org.