Ochiai, Eikichi

On the eve of the war, Eikichi Ochiai was an executive officer with the Hilo Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, an organization comprised of prominent members of the business community. They worked to expand commerce with Japan, eliminate trade barriers, and develop direct steamship service between Hilo and Asia. Along with Ochiai, all of JCC&I's prewar senior executive officers were interned. They included Yoichi Hata, Kashin Isa, Hisato Isemoto, Katsujiro Kagawa, Mitsuji Kasamoto, Masato Kiyosaki, Gunichi Kuwahara, Genichi Nagami, Takaichi Saiki, Takuji Shindo, and Shizuma Tagawa.

Under the pen name Seiyu, Ochiai also participated in one of the many dynamic Japanese poetry societies that gave Hawaii Island the name "Poetry Island" in the years before the war. With the internment of so many Big Island poets, like Rentaro Shito Degawa, Shoichi Gessho Koide, Minoru Koran Murakami, David Shugaku Marutani, Tadasuke Koryu Nakabayashi, Eikichi Seiyu Ochiai, Otokichi Muin Ozaki, Haruto Fuyo Saito, and Shigezo Kasetsu Shigekane,  the Hilo societies fell silent, although many of the interned members continued to write throughout their captivity.