Group Media & Photos
A table fashioned in the Honouliuli Internment Camp by Sanji Abe for his Go game board. According to fellow internee Jack Tasaka, Abe taught many of those confined in camp how to play Go. JCCH/Sanji Abe Collection.
Internment Locations
Arrested: September 1942
Waiakea Prison Camp, Hilo, Hawaii Island
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
Honouliuli Internment Camp, Oahu Island
March 1943 - March 1944
Paroled: March 1944
Released from Parole: February 1945
Sanji Abe was born on Hawaii Island. He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War I, serving in the Headquarters Company of the Hawaiian Regiment. (Other interned WWI veterans include Frank Futoshi Arakawa, Frank Takeshi Ishii, Sukeichi Koide, Shigeru Ernest Matsusaka, Ichitaro Ozaki, and Ichiro Sato.)
Having ventured into the theater business during the interwar years, Abe was the owner of the successful Yamato-za movie theater in Hilo. In 1940, he became the first Japanese American elected to the Territorial Senate.
But war changed everything. When U.S. Army intelligence officers found a Japanese flag in the Yamato-za, Abe fell under suspicion. He was arrested in 1942 and subsequently interned at Sand Island and Honouliuli. Abe was forced to resign from the Legislature in 1943.
During Abe's incarceration, two of his sons served in the U.S. Army. George Yoshinori Abe was with the Medical Detachment of the 100th Infantry Battalion. Stanley Gunji Abe was a linguist with the Military Intelligence Service.
After the war, Abe returned to importing and promoting Japanese movies. He never sought public office again.