Internment Locations
Arrested: March 1942
Kilauea Military Camp, Hawaii Island
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
May 1942 - March 1943
Honouliuli Internment Camp, Oahu Island
Died in Confinement: September 1943
Tripler Army Hospital, Honolulu, Oahu Island
Joichi Tahara immigrated to the Hawaiian Islands in 1906 at age 18 and initially found work as a plantation laborer. He eventually came to own a general store in Pa'auilo on the Big Island. In 1921, Tahara married Tomeyo Okino of Hilo and together they had nine children.
In spring 1943, as Joichi Tahara was being transferred from confinement at the Sand Island camp to the Honouliuli internment site, his two eldest sons (Tadayuki National "Nash" Tahara and Yoshiyuki Tahara) were volunteering to serve in the U.S. Army. Nash Tahara, a sergeant with the 100th Infantry Battalion, would also serve with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Younger brother Yoshiyuki, also an infantry sergeant with the 442nd, was awarded the Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, signifying an earlier receipt of a Purple Heart for injury in battle.