Arrested: December 1942
Sand Island Internment Camp, Honolulu, Oahu Island
January 1943 - March 1943
Honouliuli Internment Camp, Oahu Island
March 1943 - July 1943
A group of thirty-four Issei men were sent in the ninth transfer group for internment in U.S. Army and Department of Justice camps on the Mainland. The internees were sent together from camp to camp. Some were paroled to War Relocation Authority camps and reunited with family members, others were transferred for repatriation to Japan.
Sharp Park Detention Station, California
July 1943 - August 1943
Santa Fe Internment Camp, New Mexico
August 1943 - October 1945
Returned to Hawaii: November 1945
Arrived in Honolulu with 450 other internees aboard the military troopship the Yarmouth.
In addition to being a barbershop owner, Wahei Oka was a priest of a new sect of Shingon Buddhism known as Chowado, which emphasized physical activity as essential to spiritual well being.
In late 1942, one of Oka's daughters, Mildred Mieko, married Honolulu resident Tatsuo Morikuni shortly before the couple was sent to the Mainland for incarceration.
Wahei Oka also was soon arrested and imprisoned.