Nakahara, Shoichi

Shoichi Nakahara was the son of Big Island businessman Minezo Nakahara, the founder of four family-run general stores on the Hamakua Coast. Shoichi was working in the family business when he was arrested and interned following the Pearl Harbor bombing. 

Several months after Shoichi's release from confinement, younger brother Thomas Takashi volunteered for the U.S. Army, serving in the 442nd Regimental Combat Team's medical unit. In the fall of 1943, the family's patriarch, Minezo Nakahara, was arrested and confined at the U.S. military prison in Hilo. Throughout this time, another Nakahara brother, Jiro, was serving as a conscript in the imperial Japanese navy. 

At the end of the war, the Nakaharas returned to running the family businesses. The Pa'auilo store would operate for 93 years, becoming the longest-running community business before it shut down in 2001.