Group Media & Photos

Zenji and Kiku Takahashi and family. Daughter Haruko is at center with glasses. JCCH/Konko Mission of Wahiawa Collection.

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Dressmaking class, ca. 1927. Haruko Takahashi, age 17, second from left. JCCH/Konko Mission of Wahiawa Collection.

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Rev. Haruko Takahashi, age 25, after Konko-kyo spiritual training in Fukuoka, 1935. JCCH/Konko Mission of Wahiawa Collection.

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Rev. Haruko Takahashi, founder of the Konko Mission of Wahiawa, Oahu Island. JCCH/Konko Mission of Wahiawa Collection.

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Rev. Haruko Takahashi (1910-1972), founder of the Konko Mission of Wahiawa, Oahu Island. JCCH/Konko Mission of Wahiawa Collection.

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Hand sewn suitcase cover with zipper and initials "HT" stitched with grosgrain by Haruko Takahashi during incarceration, c. 1943-1944.  JCCH/Takahashi Family Collection.

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Grey suitcase with key and tag attached, used by Haruko Takahashi during incarceration. JCCH/Takahashi Family Collection.

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Internment Locations

Arrested: December 1941

Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island

January 1942 - March 1943

Honouliuli Internment Camp, Oahu Island

March 1943 - July 1944

Paroled: July 1944

Haruko Takahashi was born in Kohala on Hawaii Island, the eldest daughter of building contractor Zenji Takahashi. She endured a visual disorder throughout her childhood, but at the age of 17, she experienced an improvement in her condition, brought about, she believed, through the religious messages of a minister of the Shinto-related Konkokyo sect. 

Consumed with faith, she travelled to Japan, where she studied to become a Konkokyo priest. When she returned to the islands, she settled in the community of Wahiawa on Oahu, opening a Konkokyo mission there in 1940. Takahashi's role as a leader of the Shinto-related religion would be a factor in the determination to incarcerate her. After the war, Takahashi returned to Wahiawa and re-established the Konko Mission, serving there until her death in 1972. 

Besides Haruko Takahashi, only five other Japanese women from Hawaii were ever incarcerated at Honouliuli. They were Masako Fujimura, Irene Umeno Harada, Helen Shizuko Nakagawa, Yasue Takahashi, and Ryuto Tsuda. 

Takahashi's father, Zenji Takahashi, also was arrested, a year after his daughter, and incarcerated for the length of the war.