Sand Island (detention facility)

Federal officials identified Honolulu's Immigration Station and the nearby Territorial Quarantine Hospital on Sand Island early on as facilities suited for the confinement of civilians. Surgeon General Thomas Parran resisted Secretary of War Henry Stimson's May 1941 request to place the buildings under his jurisdiction in the event that "Army authorities are directed to take over internment of enemy aliens." ^[4] However, the Japanese attack on O'ahu, followed by Governor Joseph Poindexter 's declaration of martial law, caused the U.S. Army to forcibly seize the facilities on December 8. ^[5]

The mass arrest and confinement of local residents appearing on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's custodial detention list began immediately after the declaration of martial law on December 7, 1941. (See martial law, Hawai'i .) By December 10, FBI agents had apprehended 493 civilians, including forty-three American citizens and numerous neighbor island residents. ^[6] This initial group consisted mostly of Buddhist and Shinto priests, Japanese language school teachers, journalists, and toritsuginin , volunteer consular officials who helped local residents update their family registers in Japan. ^[7]

Those arrested on O'ahu were initially crowded into the Honolulu Immigration Station pending a hearing or a short boat ride to Sand Island. ^[8] Soldiers armed with bayonets led their charges to the building's basement, where they searched the inmates and confiscated their belongings. ^[9] Detainees were informed that hearings would be granted as a privilege rather than a right. Although they were permitted legal counsel, expenses were not covered and the defendants were not permitted to confront their anonymous accusers. ^[10] In many cases, a second panel of FBI, Military Intelligence Division (MID), and Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) officials overruled a hearing board's initial recommendation for parole or release, resulting in the defendant's continued confinement. ^[11]

As many as 456 civilian detainees were packed into this five-acre camp, which was surrounded by a fifteen-foot fence ringed with barbed wire and eight twenty-foot-high guard towers. ^[12] Although the quarantine facilities already included a mess hall, administrative quarters, and a few housing units, the military expended half a million dollars on improvements. ^[13] The site was divided into four compounds—two for Japanese males, one for female detainees of "mixed race," and a final one for male Germans and Italians. ^[14] Since the completion of the barracks took more than two months, inmates initially slept on army cots in eight-person open-air tents. These cots were laid directly on the coral floor and the island was prone to flooding during heavy rains. ^[15] High school and college students from the Hawai'i Territorial Guard watched over a collection of community leaders that included medical doctors, architects, and school principals, as well as territorial legislators Sanji Abe and Thomas Sakakihara. ^[16]

The first two weeks of confinement on Sand Island were particularly severe. The weather was poor and few detainees had access to spare clothing, toothbrushes or razors. ^[17] Guards referred to their civilian charges as "POWs," subjecting them to a strip search on at least one occasion. ^[18] Detainee Alfred Preis recalled the indignity of being forced to clean toilets with his bare hands. ^[19] Roll calls—conducted twice a day, often during driving rain—tested the fortitude of Sand Island inmates, many of whom suffered from medical conditions. ^[20] Deprived of family visits, in addition to radios, newspapers, and wristwatches, the detainees spent the first two weeks in a state of imposed ignorance. ^[21] Tensions eased after a late December visit from Military Governor Delos Emmons , who stressed that the inmates were to be treated as "detainees" rather than POWs. ^[22]

By the time the International Red Cross and the Swedish Vice Consul inspected the camp in the fall of 1942, conditions had improved considerably. Inspectors praised Sand Island's barracks, kitchen, and cuisine, prepared by interned chefs from Waikiki's leading hotels. ^[23] Tents had been replaced with four two-story barracks in February, complete with separate quarters for female detainees. ^[24] Camp facilities included a laundry, latrines, mess halls, an infirmary, and an athletic field. ^[25] Detainees were divided into companies and they elected representatives to serve as conduits to camp authorities. ^[26] Family visits were allowed twice a month from May 1942 onwards, helping to lift detainees' spirits. ^[27]

As time crept forward, inmates developed a variety of strategies for combating their perpetual boredom. Mail was eventually permitted, but letters were censored and had to be written in English. ^[28] Sundays provided a welcomed escape from monotony, as detainees gathered together for an assortment of religious services, with men and women intermingling freely. ^[29] In between, the residents of Sand Island busied themselves with crafts—coral artwork was a favorite pastime—gardening, and camp chores, including laundry, kitchen duties, and picking up loose trash. ^[30]

The Sand Island camp served as the principal transfer and holding site for Hawai'i's civilian detainees for fifteen months. However, the island's location in an exposed combat zone put the detainees at risk and generated concerns among officials. ^[31] Shipments of Sand Island inmates to the U.S. mainland for prolonged confinement commenced in February 1942 and continued until the closure of the civilian camp in March 1943. By that point, more than six hundred local residents from across the Hawaiian Islands had passed through Sand Island on their way to continental camps. ^[32] The 149 remaining detainees were taken to a new facility in the Honouliuli gulch in early March 1943. ^[33] Two years later, as prisoners arrived from the European and Pacific theaters, Sand Island was converted into a POW camp. By September 1945 the site held 1,010 Koreans and 952 Italians. ^[34] Today Sand Island is home to a state recreation area, a U.S. Coast Guard base, a wastewater treatment facility, and an assortment of industrial facilities, but no evidence of the wartime detention center remains.

Commission of Wartime Internment and Relocation of Civilians. Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.

Kashima, Tetsuden. Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Internment during World War II . Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Miyamoto, Kazuo. Hawaii: End of the Rainbow . Rutland, VT: Tuttle Company, 1964.

Soga, Yasutaro (Keiho). Life Behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawai'i Issei . Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2008.