Kelli Yoshie Nakamura

This project provides a holistic understanding of the incarceration experience of Hawai‘i’s Japanese by examining the unique pre-war Japanese communities that existed on each island and how community dynamics would shape the incarceration experience of its members. It also addresses the specific conditions and challenges inmates encountered on each island before they were released, transferred to O‘ahu, and sent either to mainland incarceration centers or Honouliuli. Thus, while Hawai‘i incarceration is often dismissed as a footnote to the mainland incarceration experience, Hawai‘i incarceration was an important precedent to mainland incarceration as the racism of civil and military officials became manifest in various ways on the different islands of Hawai‘i.