Internment Locations
Left Hawaii: August 1942
Part of a group of almost forty Hawaii families (wives, mothers and children) sent to the Mainland for intended repatriation to Japan along with their husbands and fathers already in incarceration. The families' transfer was overseen by the War Department, and the group was accompanied by Hawaii physician Isao Murai, a representative of the American Red Cross.
Grove Park Inn, Asheville, North Carolina
Assembly Inn, Montreat, North Carolina
Crystal City Family Internment Camp, Texas
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.
Repatriated to Japan
While in Singapore, Mitsuko Masaki's husband, Rev. Jikyo Masaki, and son, Takashi, boarded the hospital ship Awa Maru with other repatriates bound for Japan. Shortly before midnight April 1, 1945, the ship was torpedoed and sunk by an American submarine. More than two thousand passengers and crew were killed, including Mitsuko's husband and young son. Also killed were Hawaii internee Shoichi Asami and his son, Harold Ryozo Asami. 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.