Internment Locations

Transferred to Mainland: January 1943

Sent aboard the military troopship the Kota Agoeng with more than 260 other Hawaii residents for incarceration in Mainland camps.


Jerome Concentration Camp, Arkansas

February 1943 - May 1944


Tule Lake Segregation Center, California

May 1944 - November 1945


Returned to Hawaii: December 1945

Arrived in Honolulu with about 775 other internees aboard the military troopship the Shawnee.


In 1990, Yoshiko Matsuda, a master poet and teacher, received the Hawaii Award for Literature, the state's highest literary honor. Three years later, she was named a Living Treasure by the Honpa Hongwanji. She founded the poetry society Odamaki Tanka Kai, which she led for 35 years. Four anthologies of her works have been published.