Group Media & Photos
Santa Fe Internment Camp, ca. 1943-1945. Bottom, Row 2 (L-R): Itsuo Hamada (11th), Wataru Takeshita (12th), Sadashichi Miura (13th/4th from R), Iwaki Watanabe (16th/1st). Row 3 (half row): Akimasa Watanabe (6th), Shigeru Yano (8th). Row 4: Tamezo Takemori (1st), Shigeki Mizumoto (2nd), Tamio Nakamura (5th), Hisashi Fukuhara (7th), Mitsutaka Horiuchi (9th), Toramatsu Matsumoto (10th), Yasuyuki Mizutari (15th/7th from R), Torao Iseri (17th/5th), Tomoji Matsumura (18th/4th), Toyoki Kimura (21st/1st). Row 5: Kokichi Nakamura (4th), Yoshio Yoshioka (5th), Kiyoshi Yonemura (6th), Gengo Honda (7th), Junzo Mashita (8th), Ushitaro Yonezaki (10th), Kinori Nishino (11th), Chikashi Nakayama (12th/ 7th from R), Kentaro Hirashima (13th/6th), Ishima Kusano (14th/5th), Zenzo Kisada (15th/4th), Tatsuji Morimoto (16th/3rd), Tatsuo Ito (17th/2nd). Row 6: Hideki Takahashi (2nd), Hisatoshi Tanisaki (10th), Takashi Hamada (11th), Kyujiro Nakashima (13th/5th from R), Sokutaro Ashihara (16th/2nd). Row 7: Nejio Sonoda (13th), Takichi Kinoshita (14th), Yaichi Yamamoto (20th/3rd from R). Row 8: Kunitaro Takeuchi (2nd), Satoru Hirae (9th). JCCH/Tamio Nakamura Collection.
Internment Locations
Arrested: December 1941
Maui County Jail, Wailuku, Maui Island
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
A group of 167 Hawaii men (mostly Issei) were sent on the second transfer ship 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 from Camp Livingston to Fort Missoula before being transferred 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 - April 1942
Fort Sill Internment Camp, Oklahoma
April 1942 - May 1942
Camp Livingston Internment Camp, Louisiana
June 1942 - June 1943
Fort Missoula Internment Camp, Montana
June 1943 - April 1944
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
April 1944 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
In July 1941, Itsuo Hamada was one of several dozen Japanese consular agents being considered for prosecution by the U.S. government under a 1917 espionage act. The prosecution did not happen, however, due to opposition by then Secretary of War Henry Stimson on the recommendation of Hawaii army commander Maj. Gen. Walter Short, who believed it would "unduly alarm the entire population and jeopardize success of our current campaign to secure loyalty among [the] Japanese population."