Internment Locations
Arrested: November 1942
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
This internee was among forty-two Issei men who were sent in the eighth transfer group for internment in U.S. Army and Justice Department camps on the Mainland. The internees were sent together from camp to camp, with some paroled to War Relocation Authority camps to reunite with family or transferred for repatriation to Japan.
Sharp Park Detention Station, California
March 1943 - August 1943
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
August 1943 - June 1944
Paroled to Plainfield, New Jersey
Returned to Hawaii: December 1945
A prominent member of the business community, Mitsuji Kasamoto was an executive officer with the Hilo Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an organization that worked to expand commerce with Japan, eliminate trade barriers, and develop direct steamship service between Hilo and Asia. All of JCC&I's prewar senior executive officers were interned. Along with Kasamoto, they included Yoichi Hata, Kashin Isa, Hisato Isemoto, Katsujiro Kagawa, Masato Kiyosaki, Gunichi Kuwahara, Genichi Nagami, Eikichi Ochiai, Takaichi Saiki, Takuji Shindo, and Shizuma Tagawa.
During his incarceration, two of Kasamoto's sons served in the U.S. military: Hiroshi was a member of the Military Intelligence Service and Atsushi volunteered for the segregated Japanese American army unit that became the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.