Group Media & Photos

Nippu Jiji editor Shoichi Asami and wife, Shizu. Honolulu, ca. 1920. JCCH/Asami Family Collection

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Nippu Jiji Newspaper staff. Honolulu, c. 1920. Shigeichi Kawamura (3rd from left), publisher Yasutaro Soga (3rd from right), editor Shoichi Asami (far right) . JCCH/Betsy Anne Kawamura Collection.

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Internment Locations

Arrested: December 1941

Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island

First Transfer Group: February 1942

A group of 172 Hawaii men (mostly Issei) were sent aboard the military transport ship USS U.S. Grant for internment in U.S. Army and Department of Justice camps on the Mainland. Together, the men were sent from camp to camp. 

In June 1943, this transfer group was split into two, with this group sent directly from Camp Livingston to the Santa Fe Camp.

From there, some internees were paroled to War Relocation Authority camps, where they were reunited with family members. Others were transferred for repatriation to Japan.

Angel Island Detention Facility, California

March 1942

Camp McCoy Internment Camp, Wisconsin

March 1942 - May 1942

Camp Forrest Internment Camp, Tennessee

May 1942 - June 1942

Camp Livingston Internment Camp, Louisiana

June 1942 - March 1943

Crystal City Family Internment Camp, Texas

March 1943 - September 1943

Left for Japan: September 1943

Included among the repatriates who left from New York on the M.S. Gripsholm were 72 Hawaii internees and their families.

Singapore

This internee was among a small group of Hawaii repatriates who disembarked at the Japanese-held territory of Singapore.

Died: April 1945

Sinking of the Awa Maru

Shortly before midnight April 1, 1945, the hospital ship Awa Maru, bound for Japan, was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine. More than two thousand passengers and crew were killed, including Hawaii internees Shoichi Asami, his son Harold Ryozo Asami, and Rev. Jikyo Masaki and his son Takashi Masaki. Removed from the ship at the last minute to make room for Japanese military personnel were Rev. Ryoshin Okano and his son Thomas Ryoju Okano. Their lives were spared.