Kokubo, Hisahiko

On the evening of March 9, 1942, Hisahiko Kokubo suffered a fatal heart attack in his tent at the Sand Island Internment Camp, thus becoming the first Hawaii internee to die under incarceration. Otokichi Ozaki memorialized Kokubo's death this way: "As the army vehicle [carrying Kokubo's body] silently passes by, we put our hands together in prayer as a farewell gesture. . . . Without benefit of a wake service or the reading of the [Buddhist] Sutra, it is a lonely send-off, eased by a wreath of magenta bougainvillea flowers that has been placed on the casket. With wind adding to the cold, the vehicle's taillight sways from side to side, like the spirit of the deceased as it fades in the sea breeze. The gates of our compound, secured with layers of barbed wire, open one after the other and the vehicle finally disappears. All of our pent-up emotions give way, like the ground crumbling underfoot, leaving behind an indescribable emptiness."*

More than fifty years after his death, Kokubo's granddaughter, the sculptor Nina Akamu, would be called on to create a centerpiece for the Japanese American Memorial to Patriotism in World War II in Washington, D.C. A bronze sculpture of two cranes entangled in barbed wire honors the memory of those who were incarcerated by the American government and those who served in the U.S. military during WWII.

*From Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of Otokichi Muin Ozaki (Honolulu: Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, 2012).