Group Media & Photos
Buddhist Ministers. Missoula Internment Camp, ca. 1943. Front Row (L-R): Rev. Konin Matano, Rev. Josen Deme, Rev. Yoshio Hino, Rev. Honi Ohye, Bishop Gikyo Kuchiba, Rev. Chikyoku Kikuchi, Rev. Shinri Sarashina, Rev. Shushin Matsubayashi, Rev. Jikai Yamasato. Back Row: Rev. Kenryu Hasegawa, Rev. Shoho Fujiie, Rev. Goki Tatsuguchi, Rev. Hakuai Oda, unknown, Rev. Suijo Kabashima. JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.
Buddhist priests from Hawaii. Santa Fe Internment Camp, April 1944. Bottom row (L-R): Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi, Rev. Hozui Nakayama, Rev. Shinri Sarashina, Rev. Enryo Shigefuji (Fresno, Calif.), Bishop Ninryo Nago, Rev. Chikyoku Kikuchi, Rev. Shutetsu Uyenoyama, Rev. Konin Matano, Rev. Yutetsu Matsui, unknown, unknown, Rev. Doro Kanda. Middle row (L-R): Rev. Dojin Ochi (Los Angeles), Rev. Ryuko Tachibana (Los Angeles, formerly of Hawaii), Rev. Daishin Ikejiri, Rev. Gendo Okawa, Rev. Suijo Kabashima, Rev. Tenran Mori, unknown, Rev. Ryuten Kashiwa, Rev. Josen Deme, Rev. Hakuai Oda, Rev. Taizen Imamura, Rev. Hosho Kurohira, Rev. Shunjo Shiratori, Rev. Bunpo Kuwatsuki (Los Angeles), unknown, Rev. Shodo Kawamura. Top row (L-R): Rev. Zenkai Tatsuguchi, Rev. Jikai Yamasato, Rev. Kenryu Hasegawa, unknown, Rev. Kenju Ohtomo, unknown, Rev. Gikyo Kuchiba, Zenko Saigusa, Rev. Kodo Fujitani, Rev. Kenjo Ohara, Rev. Giko Abiko (Calif.), Rev. Nisshu Kobayashi, unknown. JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.
In front of an altar. Santa Fe Internment Camp, ca. 1944-1945. 1st Row (L-R): Aisuke Shigekuni (4th), Yoshio Koike (6th). 3rd Row: Josen Deme (2nd), Rev. Yutetsu Matsui (3rd), Bishop Gikyo Kuchiba (5th), Chikyoku Kikuchi (6th), Rev. Konin Matano (7th), Rev. Shutetsu Uyenoyama (8th); Rev. Hakuai Oda (9th); Rev. Kodo Fujitani (10th). 4th Row: Bishop Ninryo Nago (5th), Rev. Suijo Kabashima (6th), Rev. Zenkai Tatsuguchi (8th). 5th Row: Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi (2nd), Rev. Shoho Fujiye (5th), Rev. Shinri Sarashina (6th), Rev. Teizen Imamura (7th). Back Row: Koichi Iida (11th), Daizo Sumida (12th). JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.In front of an altar, Santa Fe Internment Camp, ca. 1942-1945. 1st Row (L-R): Aisuke Shigekuni (4th), Yoshio Koike (6th). 3rd Row: Josen Deme (2nd), Rev. Yutetsu Matsui (3rd), Bishop Gikyo Kuchiba (5th), Chikyoku Kikuchi (6th), Rev. Konin Matano (7th), Rev. Shutetsu Uyenoyama (8th); Rev. Hakuai Oda (9th); Rev. Kodo Fujitani (10th). 4th Row: Bishop Ninryo Nago (5th), Rev. Suijo Kabashima (6th), Rev. Zenkai Tatsuguchi (8th). 5th Row: Rev. Kogan Yoshizumi (2nd), Rev. Shoho Fujiye (5th), Rev. Shinri Sarashina (6th), Rev. Teizen Imamura (7th). Back Row: Koichi Iida (11th), Daizo Sumida (12th). JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.
Internment Locations
Arrested: December 1941
Kilauea Military Camp, Hawaii Island
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
This internee was among 166 men (mostly Issei) who were sent on the second transfer ship for internment in U.S. Army and Justice Department camps on the Mainland. These men 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. This internee was in a sub-group of Second Transfer Group internees who were sent from Livingston to Missoula before being transferred to Santa Fe.
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.
Chikyoku Kikuchi's son, Akira Kikuchi, was a college student in Sacramento, California, at the outbreak of World War II and was incarcerated for a year at the Tule Lake Segregation Center before being released in 1943.
Rev. Kikuchi returned to the Big Island after his internment and continued to serve the plantation community of Naalehu. He died in 1964, after more than 40 years as a Buddhist priest in the islands.