Group Media & Photos
Lihue Japanese Christian Church on Easter Sunday, c. 1938. Rev. Kakichi Okamoto is seventh from the left in the first row of seated adults. JCCH/Betsy Young Collection.
Internees from Kauai. Santa Fe Internment Camp. Bottom Row (L-R): Setsugo Togioka (2nd), Koshi Tatsuhara (3rd), Isamu Ueoka (4th), Osuke Shigemoto (5th), Torao Iseri (8th), Rev. Ichiro Uyeda (9th). 2nd Row: Rev. Kakichi Okamoto (1st), Rev. Takao Ama (2nd), Kyoichi Uyeda (3rd), Zenkichi Morita (5th), Ikuzo Kuniyuki (6th), Kenichi Hataishi (8th), Kazuto Taketa (9th). 3rd Row: Sunao Fujii (1st), Mankichi Miura (2nd), Kazuto Yokota (3rd), Takeo Seike (4th), Masaji Toyofuku (5th), Shinjiro Matayoshi (6th), Shizuma Tanji (7th), Rev. Kakuho Asaoka (8th), Yonezo Kanja (9th), Zenzo Kisada (10th), Ishimatsu Shintani (11th). Top Row: Junzo Mashita (3rd), Jukichi Inouye (5th), Kenji Yoshiura (6th), Kazumi Matsumoto (9th), Gengo Honda (10th). JCCH/Sunao Fujii Archival Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp. Bottom Row: Matsujiro Otani (4th from R). Row 2: Rev. Kakichi Okamoto, Waimea, Kauai (1st from L, standing); Rev. Doro Kanda (1st from R); Mankichi Miura, Kapaa, Kauai (2nd from R). Row 3 (L-R): Yuichi Nakaichi (14th); Nekketsu Takei (17th); Tsuruzo Hasegawa, Kekaha, Kauai (19th from L/6th from R); Katsuichi Kawamoto (20th from L/5th from R). Top row (L-R): Sunao Fujii (4th); Masaichi Kobayashi (8th); Zenkichi Morita, Eleele, Kauai (11th). JCCH/Sunao Fujii Archival Collection.
Internees from Kauai. Santa Fe Camp Internment Camp, taken between June 1943 and March 1944. Bottom row, kneeling and seated (L-R): Shinjiro Matayoshi (1st), Kenji Yoshiura (2nd), Ryozo Izutsu (3rd), Kaetsu Furuya (4th), Yukiyasu Sodetani (5th), Koshi Tatsuhara (6th), Tsuruzo Hasegawa (7th), Rev. Hironori Nishii (9th, on chair). 2nd Row, seated: Mankichi Miura (2nd, without tie), Takeo Seike (3rd), Kameo Tahara (4th), Rev. Kakichi Okamoto (5th), Rev. Hiseki Miyasaki (6th), Rev. Ichiro Uyeda (7th), Yozaemon Yamamoto (8th), Zenzo Kisada (9th), Masaji Toyofuku (10th/4th fr R), Chiyomatsu Hamamura (11th/3rd fr R), Kazuto Yokota (13th/1st fr R). 3rd Row: Zenkichi Morita (1st), Sukenoshin Nakano (2nd), Kazuto Taketa (3rd), Rev. Shoyu Kitajima (4th), Rev. Gijo Ozawa (5th), Rev. Chiko Odate (6th), Rev. Kakuho Asaoka (7th, wearing hat), Isuke Horikawa (8th/3rd fr R), Enichi Saiki (9th/2nd fr R), Kyoichi Uyeda (10th/1st fr R). Top Row: Kyushichi Hayashi (2nd), Kenichi Hataishi (4th), Rev. Kyojo Naitoh (5th), Kokichi Tsuji (6th), Katsutaro Yamasaki (7th), Meijiro Hayashi (8th/3rd fr R), Sunao Fujii (9th/2nd fr R), Isamu Ueoka (10th/1st fr R). JCCH/Sunao Fujii Archival Collection.
Santa Fe Internment Camp. Bottom Row (L-R): Shinjiro Matayoshi (2nd), Rev. Zenkai Tatsuguchi (5th), Rev. Zenko Saigusa (6th). Row 2: Kazuyuki Kawano (2nd), Takeo Seike (3rd), Rev. Kakichi Okamoto (4th), Mankichi Miura (5th), Matsujiro Otani (7th), Rev. Kenjyo Ohara (8th), Rev. Daishin Ikejiri (9th). Row 3: Rev. Doro Kanda (2nd, with tie), Hirouemon Yamamoto (4th), Tsuruichi Sarae (6th), Rev. Tenran Mori (7th), Sukenoshin Nakano (1st fr R). Top Row: Riuichi Ipponsugi (2nd). JCCH/Riuichi Ipponsugi Archival Collection.
Internment Locations
Arrested: December 1941
Wailua County Jail, Kauai Island
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
This internee was among 39 men (mostly Issei) who were sent on the fourth transfer ship for internment in U.S. Army and Justice Department camps on the Mainland. These men were sent together from camp to camp, with some paroled to War Relocation Authority camps to reunite with family or transferred for repatriation to Japan.
Also sent on the same ship were six Issei women internees: Kiku Horibe, Miyuki Kawasaki, Yoshie Miyao, Yuki Miyao, Haru Tanaka, and Tsuta Yamane. The women were kept apart from the men and had a different internment sequence from them.
Angel Island Detention Facility, California
June 1942 - July 1942
Lordsburg Internment Camp, New Mexico
July 1942 - June 1943
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
June 1943 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
Kakichi Okamoto arrived in the Hawaiian Islands from his native Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1900. He became a Christian minister, serving on the island of Kauai, first at the Lihue Church for ten years and then at the Waimea Christian Church for twenty years before his retirement in late fall 1941.
At the outbreak of the war, Okamoto was a widower with three grown children, and his only son, Noel Yuzuru Okamoto, would volunteer for the U.S. military in spring 1943, during Kakichi Okamoto's mainland confinement. Noel Yuzuru served as a member of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.