Internment Locations
Arrested: April 1942
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
One hundred and nine Hawaii men (mostly Issei) were sent on the third transfer ship for internment in U.S. Army and Department of Justice camps on the Mainland. The internees were sent together from camp to camp. Some were paroled to War Relocation Authority camps and reunited with family members, others were transferred for repatriation to Japan.
Angel Island Detention Facility, California
June 1942
Fort Sam Houston Internment Camp, Texas
June 1942
Lordsburg Internment Camp, New Mexico
June 1942 - June 1943
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
June 1943 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
In the spring of 1943, Shotaro Awaya's son Susumu Awaya married Kozue Nakagawa, the daughter of Big Island resident Sawaichi Nakagawa, who also was under incarceration on the Mainland.
At about this same time, Susumu Awaya volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army. He would become a staff sergeant with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and would be decorated for his fighting in Italy.
After the war, Shotaro Awaya's daughter, Yoshie, married Koichiro Nakamura, also a Hawaii internee.