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.

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Softball players. Missoula Internment Camp, ca. 1943-1944. Front Row (L-R): Rev. Joei Oi (1st), Rev. Shushin Matsubayashi (3rd), Masayuki Chikuma (5th), Rev. Konin Matano (6th), Osuke Shigemoto (7th), Hideyuki Serizawa (10th), Ichitaro Charles Hasebe. Middle Row (L-R): Rev. Gikyo Kuchiba (1st), Totaro Matsui (2nd), Kinzo Sayegusa (4th), Kumaji Furuya (5th), Sawajiro Ozaki (6th). Back Row (L-R): Rev. Hakuai Oda (2nd), Daizo Sumida (6th), Rev. Josen Deme (10th), Rev. Gendo Okawa (11th), Taichi Sato (13th), Rev. Kaneki Honda (14th), Aisuke Shigekuni (15th), Setsuzo Toyota (16th). JCCH/Rev. Hakuai Oda Collection.

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Internment Locations

Arrested: December 1941

Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island

First Transfer Group (Missoula): February 1942

A group of 172 Hawaii men (mostly Issei) were sent aboard the military transport ship USS U.S. Grant 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

Camp McCoy Internment Camp, Wisconsin

March 1942 - May 1942

Camp Forrest Internment Camp, Tennessee

May 1942 - June 1942

Camp Livingston Internment Camp, Louisiana

June 1942 - June 1943

Fort Missoula Internment Camp, Montana

June 1943 - September 1943

Repatriated to Japan: September 1943

Included among the repatriates who left from New York on the M.S. Gripsholm were 72 Hawaii internees and their families.

Internee Kumaji Furuya, in his memoir An Internment Odyssey, relates that when the FBI arrived to arrest Shushin Matsubayashi, they mistook him for his brother, Shoten, because of the similarity of their names. When Matsubayashi pointed out the error, an FBI agent is said to have responded that the difference mattered little, for Shushin, like his brother, was a Buddhist priest. Thus, Shushin was arrested and taken into custody. "Of course," Furuya explained, "I realized that Reverend Matsubayashi would have been apprehended sooner or later." 

Military authorities arrested Shoten Matsubayashi some eight months later.

Shushin Matsubayashi and his family returned to Japan during the war. His three sons also became Buddhist ministers. George Tadayoshi Matsubayashi, who was born in Hawaii, returned to the islands in the 1960s to serve at the Honpa Hongwanji Temple in Honolulu. George Matsubayashi married Kay Kiyoko Shirasu, daughter of another Hawaii internee, Rev. Jukaku Shirasu.