Kilauea Military Camp | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

May 22, 2025 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kīlauea Military Camp

What once began as an idea by Hilo Board of Trade members for a training ground for the National Guard and an Army “vacation and health recruiting station” has become one of Hawaii’s most unique resorts for the military. (KMC)

Let’s look back.

In 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā. Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory. (Chapman)

Besides its volcanic interest, the park is noted for its fine examples of tropical vegetation (some forest species being extremely rare;) its native birdlife which is unique in the entire world; its Polynesian archaeology and history; and its character as an international park. (Edward G Wingate, Superintendent, 1939)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.)

Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House. (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex officio the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo.)

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano; one mile west of the Volcano House; a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.) Later, the roads opened.

“Tours of all the islands are arranged. Connected with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company is the world-famous Volcano House overlooking the everlasting house of fire, as the crater of Halemaʻumaʻu is justly named. “

“A night’s ride from Honolulu and an hour by automobile and you are at the Volcano House in the Hawaii National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi, the only truly historic caravansary of the Hawaiian Islands.” (The Mid-Pacific, December 1933)

The Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site through 1917.

Encouraged by local boosters, including John Giles and Lorrin Thurston, KMC became a mainstay of the volcano park for the next three decades. (Chapman)

From the latter part of 1916 into early-1917, the newly designated Kīlauea Military Camp witnessed a steady stream of military units.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i prior to 1917 had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium. (Chapman)

To keep the place going, school summer programs and Boy Scouts stayed at the camp. Following WWI, the trustees transferred their KSBE lease to the Park Service. By late-1921, soldiers on recreation leave started to return to the Camp and the facilities started to expand.

The last major addition to KMC was the provision of an airfield; in 1924, the Army built a landing strip just south of Halemaʻumaʻu (known as Sand Spit Horst.)

However, within a few months an explosive eruption at Halemaʻumaʻu threw boulders onto the site. (Another runway was built closer to the Camp – it was named Boles Field in honor of the Park’s first Superintendent, Thomas R Boles.)

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935, however, due to a slow resolution of the lease agreement between the Park Service and the Navy. (KMC)

In 1941 it became an important staging ground for the war. From March to October 1942, KMC became the headquarters for the Twenty-seventh Division of the Army. The troops used the buildings at KMC for quarters and the grounds for training.

The R&R Camp also became an internment camp. The first detainees arrived in the afternoon of December 7, 1941. Most did not stay at KMC for long, however; within a few months all were transferred to Sand Island on Oʻahu. (Nakamura)

In June 1942 the Battle of Midway changed the tide of the war, and KMC was again re-activated as a rest and recreation camp, but it also continued to support tactical training of troops. In October 1943, the decision was made to return the Camp to a fully recreational facility. (Nakamura)

In the postwar period, General Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed for a few days at KMC in 1946. In 1949, the Army opened KMC to members of all branches of the military. (Chapman)

On, July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

December 16, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Whaling Ship Anchor at +4,000 Feet?

The plaque inscription states, “Found by the salvage ship ‘USS Beaufort ATS-2’ in July 1972 off Lahaina, Maui. This anchor is believed to have been made around 1850 and used by one of the whaling ships of that era. Presented to the men of the Kilauea Military Camp by the officers and crew of USS Beaufort ATS-2”

The anchor was a gift, so it is appropriate wherever it is; likewise, the gift of a whaling anchor found off Lahaina (at a location 4,000-feet above the ocean) helps tell some of the stories of Hawai‘i’s military and economy – I think questioning why it’s there and looking into it a bit is helpful, and not something necessarily out of place.

The USS Beaufort (named for Beaufort, South Carolina) was the Navy’s largest and most capable submarine rescue and deep-ocean search-and-recovery ship. She was built in the late-1960s and commissioned on January 22, 1972 and spent most of her service in the Western Pacific. She was decommissioned on March 8, 1996.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. At that time, whale products were in high demand; whale oil was used for heating, lamps and in industrial machinery; whale bone was used in corsets, skirt hoops, umbrellas and buggy whips.

Whalers’ aversion to the traditional Hawaiian diet of fish and poi spurred new trends in farming and ranching. The sailors wanted fresh vegetables and the native Hawaiians turned the temperate uplands into vast truck farms.

There was a demand for fresh fruit, cattle, white potatoes and sugar. Hawaiians began growing a wider variety of crops to supply the ships.

In Hawaiʻi, several hundred whaling ships might call in season, each with 20 to 30 men aboard and each desiring to resupply with enough food for another tour “on Japan,” “on the Northwest,” or into the Arctic.

The whaling industry was the mainstay of the island economy for about 40 years. For Hawaiian ports, the whaling fleet was the crux of the economy. More than 100 ships stopped in Hawaiian ports in 1824.

“At present the whale ships visit the Sandwich Islands in the months of March and April and then proceed to the coast of Japan, the return again in October and November remain here about six weeks, and then proceed in different directions …”

“… some to the Coast of California, others cruise about the Equator when they return thither again in March and April and proceed a second time to the Coast of Japan; it usually occupies two seasons on that coast to fill a ship that will carry Three Hundred Tons.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

“The number of hands generally comprising the Company of a whale ship will average Twenty Five; and owing to the want of discipline, the length and the ardourous duties of the voyage, these people generally become dissatisfied and are willing at any moment to join a rebellion or desert the first opportunity) that may offer …”

“… this has been fully exemplified in the whale ships that have visited these islands, constant disertions have taken place and many serious mutinies both contributing to protract and frequently ruin the voyage.” (Jones report to Henry Clay, Secretary of State, 1827)

The effect on Hawaiʻi’s economy, particularly in areas in reach of Honolulu, Lāhainā and Hilo, the main whaling ports, was dramatic and of considerable importance in the islands’ history. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai‘i.

Then, whaling came swiftly to an end. In 1859, oil was discovered and a well was developed in Titusville, Pennsylvania; within a few years this new type of oil replaced whale oil for lamps and many other uses – spelling the end of the whaling industry.

At volcano … in 1898, Lorrin Thurston owner of Volcano House and head of the Hawai‘i Promotion Committee (forerunner to the Hawai‘i Visitors and Convention Bureau) worked closely with the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company to create an excursion business from Honolulu to his hotel at Kīlauea.

Although he sold his interest in Volcano House to hotelier George Lycurgus (1858–1960) in 1904, Thurston continued to promote Kīlauea and Hawai‘i’s other natural sites.

He helped with the establishment of the Hawaiʻi National Park, an entity to encompass both Kīlauea and Haleakalā. Hawai‘i’s new National Park, established August 1, 1916, was the thirteenth in the new system and the first in a US territory. (Chapman)

The history of the Park generally mirrors the history of Kīlauea Military Camp (KMC.) Interest in Kīlauea as a military training and rest area began in September 1911, when Companies A and F, Twentieth Infantry, arrived. They were followed two years later by one hundred men from Company D, First Infantry, who camped near the Volcano House. (Nakamura)

Thurston helped negotiate a lease for about 50-acres of land from Bishop Estate; trustees held the lease (they included Ex offico the Commander of the Army Department of Hawaii; Ex officio the Commanding General of the National Guard of Hawaii; Lieut Col John T. Moir, National Guard, Island of Hawaiʻi; GH Vicars of Hilo and LA Thurston of Honolulu and Hilo).

In the early years, to get there, off-island folks took steamer ships to either Hilo or Punaluʻu (from Hilo they caught a train to Glenwood and walked/rode horses to Volcano. From Ka‘ū, a five-mile railroad took passengers to Pahala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano. Later, the roads opened.

The Kilauea Military Camp is located at an elevation of 4,000-feet, directly on the belt road around the island (the road was later relocated mauka of the Camp.)

KMC greeted its first group of US Army Soldiers from Company A, 2nd Infantry, November 6, 1916. Three buildings for dining and recreation were still unfinished, so the visiting Soldiers were expected to provide their own sleeping tents. A couple weeks later, November 17, KMC was officially opened, and many Soldiers came to this unique site.

Then, WWI broke out and virtually all of the troops in Hawai‘i had transferred to the continental US, many of them then moving on in succeeding months to the trenches of France and Belgium. (Chapman)

As part of the original agreement, the Navy built its own rest and recreation camp on a 14-acre parcel adjacent to KMC in 1926. The Navy camp was transferred to KMC’s control in 1935. (KMC)

On July 1, 1961, Hawaiʻi National Park’s units were separated and re-designated as Haleakalā National Park and Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park. The relationship between the military and Park Service was not always smooth.

Today, Kīlauea Military Camp is open to all active and retired armed forces, Reserve/National Guard, dependents, other uniformed services, and current and retired Department of Defense civilians, including Coast Guard civilians and sponsored guests.

June 2, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Volcano Golf Course

The records of the Māhele ‘Āina note, Victoria Kamāmalu, a granddaughter of Kamehameha I, claimed and received the ‘ili of Keauhou during the Māhele. Victoria Kamāmalu died on May 29th, 1866, at the age of 28 years.

Her lands were inherited by her father, Mataio Kekūanāoʻa. Kekūanāoʻa died two years later, on November 24th, 1868. His lands – including those he’d inherited from his own children and relatives – were inherited by his daughter, Luta ‘Ruth’ Keʻelikōlani (Princess Ruth, half sister of V. Kamāmalu).

Keʻelikōlani died on May 24, 1883. Her lands – including those she inherited from her own father, siblings, husband, and relatives – were inherited by her cousin, Bernice Pauahi Bishop.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop (Pauahi), daughter of Laura Konia and Abner Paki, inherited the lands of her parents – Abner Paki, who died on June 13, 1855, leaving Pauahi his six (6) Māhele lands and numerous parcels; and Laura Konia, who died on July 2, 1857, leaving Pauahi her ten (10) Māhele lands.

Pauahi also inherited the six (6) Māhele lands of her aunt, ‘Akahi, who died on October 8,1877; and the lands of her cousin, Keʻelikōlani on May 24, 1883 – these lands included the ‘ili of Keauhou, which embrace Kīlauea.

Bernice Pauahi Bishop died on October 15, 1884, her combined lands were dedicated to the establishment of the trust forming the Bishop Estate and the subsequent forming of Kamehameha Schools.

On June 4, 1920, Bishop Estate agreed to a trade with the Territory of Hawaii, exchanging approximately 12,035 acres of Keauhou for Government land at Mohokea, Ka‘ū.

The agreement excluded unrecorded leases between the Estate and the Volcano House Company; OT Shipman (for Keauhou Ranch); the Kilauea Military Camp and Territorial Guard; the County of Hawai‘i; and eleven individuals, holding leasehold residential lots.

The agreement of 1920 provided the Territory of Hawaii, with the lands necessary to form the Kilauea section of Hawaii National Park. The Territory subsequently transferred the Keauhou-Kilauea parcel to the United States Government in 1922. (Maly)

In 1863, the first formal lease of Keauhou was granted by Chiefess Kamāmalu and her father, M. Kekūanaoʻa, to F.B. Swain. By 1865 the lease had transferred to C.E. Richardson, who with partners, Wm. Reed, Geo. Jones, and L. Kaina, who in addition to further developing ranching and a pulu harvesting business at Keauhou, also developed a new a Volcano House.

The facility served visitors to the Volcano, and those traveling between Kaʻū and Hilo or Puna. The growing facilities were made in a mixture of Hawaiian and western architecture. The first, all-wooden Volcano House, was built in 1877, and remains not far from where it was originally built, to the present-day.

In the years leading up to establishment of the National Park, the National Guard of Hawaiʻi and the United States Army established a military reserve (Kīlauea Military Camp) in Keauhou, for purposes of training, recreation and health. The Volcano House Hotel also secured a lease from the Trustees of the Bishop Estate to develop the Volcano Golf Course. (Maly)

The oldest on Hawaii island, Volcano golf course began in 1921 as three holes marked by stakes. (VGCC) “[T]he [initial] golf course was pasture. At that time [Arthur Brown had Keauhou Ranch and they] ran the milk cows, horses and cattle and all that. In the golf course they ran what they called their working horses and the milk cows.”

“And the golf course … the putting area was all fenced off so the cattle wouldn’t bother that. Then of course the biggest part of the ranch ran up Mauna Loa side.” (Morgan Arthur Brown Oral History Interview)

Then, in 1922, they constructed a 9-hole course, “a real golf course.” “It all came to pass when the management of the Volcano House, an up-to-date hostelry, maintained for the convenience of the … tourists, suddenly realized that it was not living up to the prescribed reputation of being up-to-date inasmuch as it had failed to provide, like other first-class tourists’ hotels, a golf course.”

“True its chief reason for existence is the Volcano, but the Englishman and his sense of honor, the hotel management felt that it could not conscientiously permit the establishment to be broadcasted as a hotel of the first-class unless it sported all the emendations credited to other first-class hotels.”

“And so, in taking stock of the Volcano House’s short comings, with was disclosed that the only thing of note which appeared to be lacking was a golf course.”

“[O]n a recent Sunday a nine-hole links was formally thrown open to those who cared to risk a few golf balls. Risk is hardly the word. Sacrifice would be better, as the course is dotted here and there with pukas (lava holes) and, although they have been wired over, the balls have an exasperating habit of slipping under the wire.”

“Then, again, if the golfer happens to be a particularly strong-armed individual, he is apt to send one skidding into the nineteenth hole – in this instance the crater itself.”

“On the other hand, the flow of lava from the crater has provided natural hazards such as bunkers and traps and the chap engaged to lay pit the course really didn’t have such a hard job of it. In fact, the course is the only one of its kind today and is certainly a unique one.”

“As everybody knows, golf requires keen nerves and concentration of mind and muscle and the ordinary golfer who attempts the volcano course after the first time usually encounters opposition from an unexpected quarter. As the volcano is in a state of constant activity, gas and steam occasionally and suddenly issue from the pukas.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 11, 1922)

“The new golf links in the section adjacent to the tree-molds are already proving popular and offer a sporting nine holes that will arouse the keenest skill of the most inveterate player.”

“The golf links, which have been laid out at the expense of the Kilauea Volcano House so will not be run for profit. A small green fee is being charged and it is hoped that in due course.”

“As the links become better known, this will be sufficient to pay the cost of a permanent attendant and to erect something in the nature of a shelter-house for the players in the event of showers.” (Star Bulletin, June 10, 1922)

From this humble beginning, the course finally grew to an 18-hole layout two and half decades later (1946). C Brewer acquired the course in 1968 and their renovations included a redesign by legendary golf course architect Jack Snyder. C Brewer also oversaw the construction of a $200,000 clubhouse, which was damaged by fire in 2019. (VGCC)

Kamehameha Schools found someone to take over the lease for the Volcano Golf Course and Country Club. In 2020, the previous lessee of the 156-acre golf course unexpectedly abandoned the property four years before the termination of the lease. (Hawaii Tribune Herald)

May 28, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Hale o Nalii

On July 7, 1937, Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific; while the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 unleashed the European war.

As to Hawaiʻi, War Department message of November 27, 1941 read as follows: “Negotiations have come to a standstill at this time. No diplomatic breaking of relations and we will let them make the first overt act. You will take such precautions as you deem necessary to carry out the Rainbow plan [a war plan]. Do not excite the civilian population.” (Proceedings of Army Pearl Harbor Board)

Oʻahu held a position of the first importance in the military structure of the US before and during WWII. During the prewar years, Oʻahu and the Panama Canal Zone were the two great outposts of continental defense. (army-mil)

A key goal in the Pacific was to hold Oʻahu as a main outlying naval base and to protect shipping in the waters around the Hawaiian Islands.

In the year before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American strategists developed a strategy that focused on “Germany first.” In the end, that was what occurred with the American war effort. Then, Japan attacked America at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the US entered the war.

But for much of 1942 and well into 1943, the US deployed substantially greater forces to the Pacific than to Europe. This was in response both to political pressure from the American people and the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Pacific over the first six months of the war.

On June 6, 1944, more than 160,000-Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France.

General Dwight D Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000-ships and 13,000-aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe.

The final battles of the European Theater of WWII, as well as the German surrender to the Western Allies and the Soviet Union, took place in late-April and early-May 1945.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese signed the Instrument of Surrender on the deck of USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

During World War II, Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and achieved the rare five-star rank of General of the Army. Eisenhower oversaw the invasions of North Africa and Sicily before supervising the invasions of France and Germany.

Following the war, Eisenhower served as Army Chief of Staff; in the spring of 1946 he toured military facilities in the Pacific and elsewhere, including Hawai‘i.

The Commander at Kilauea Military Camp (KMC), who at the time was working on post-war closing up and returning schools, warehouses, land, and even the Saddle Road which had been built by the military to the community (as well as providing military help in cleaning up following the April 1946 tsunami), got word that Eisenhower was coming for a five-day visit, for rest, after a tour of the Pacific nations.

Eisenhower was looking for “quiet time, no protocol, no attention.”

At the time, KMC “was ceasing to be only for war-weary soldiers for rest, relaxation and recreation. The camp still had a contingent of 10 officers and 148 enlisted men; three Red Cross hostesses, a Librarian and a good jazz band.”

“There were 12 good riding horses, 4 pack mules for trips to the summit of Mauna Loa, a number of bicycles, a tennis court, a bowling alley, a fine library, and a first-class bakery in a building by itself. Never-the-less KMC personnel got to work sprucing up the place, the General was coming.”

Eisenhower stayed in Cabin 44; it was called Hale-o-Nalii (house of the chief – it served as quarters for general’s at KMC). It was later renamed Eisenhower House, due to the fact that ~that~ general slept there.

On one night, Eisenhower “was feeling very rested and would enjoy some entertainment and asked for suggestions.” He was offered, “‘How about a party with cocktails, dinner and a Hawaiian troop of dancers and musicians?’”

“The idea was accepted, but that meant we had only one day to prepare for everything.” (Pauline Wollaston, the KMC Commander’s wife, Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Dec 14, 1986)

“All went well. The general ordered several highballs, the dinner was superb, and he loved the entertainment. While this was going on I happened to glance at one of his aides – a gray-haired, battle-worn general. Tears were streaming down his face.”

“I asked him what was the matter, could I do something for him. He answered, ‘Oh, you all already have! When I see this great man enjoying himself, I can’t control my emotions.’”

“Gen. Eisenhower left the next morning; and all along the roadway, from KMC to the airport, there were children and adults waving and cheering.” (Pauline Wollaston, Hawaii Tribune Herald, Dec 14, 1986)

Eisenhower also served as president of Columbia University (1948–1953) and as the first Supreme Commander of NATO (1951–1952). He was elected the 34th President of the United States (January 20, 1953 – January 20, 1961). (Lots of information here from KMC, Hawaii Tribune-Herald, army-mil and GlobalSecurity.)

December 8, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

R&R Facility to Prison

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the Hawai‘i landscape. Hawai‘i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880; these twenty years were pivotal in building the plantation system.

However, a shortage of laborers to work in the growing (in number and size) sugar plantations became a challenge. The only answer was imported labor.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed ‘An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,’ a section of which provided the legal basis for contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

There were three big waves of workforce immigration: Chinese 1852; Japanese 1885; and Filipinos 1905. Several smaller, but substantial, migrations also occurred: Portuguese 1877; Norwegians 1880; Germans 1881; Puerto Ricans 1900; Koreans 1902 and Spanish 1907.

In March 1881, King Kalākaua visited Japan during which he discussed with Emperor Meiji Hawaiʻi’s desire to encourage Japanese nationals to settle in Hawaiʻi.

Kalākaua’s meeting with Emperor Meiji improved the relationship of the Hawaiian Kingdom with the Japanese government and an economic depression in Japan served as motivation for Japanese agricultural workers to move from their homeland. (Nordyke/Matsumoto)

The first 943-government-sponsored, Kanyaku Imin, Japanese immigrants to Hawaiʻi arrived in Honolulu on February 8, 1885. Subsequent government approval was given for a second set of 930-immigrants who arrived in Hawaii on June 17, 1885.

With the Japanese government satisfied with treatment of the immigrants, a formal immigration treaty was concluded between Hawaiʻi and Japan on January 28, 1886. The treaty stipulated that the Hawaiʻi government would be held responsible for employers’ treatment of Japanese immigrants.

The Issei (first generation) were born in Japan and emigrated to Hawai‘i from 1885 to 1924 (when Congress stopped all legal migration.) (The Immigration Act of 1924 (aka Johnson-Reed Act) limited the number of immigrants allowed entry into the US through a national origins quota. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia. (State Department))

The sugar industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

Like the other ethnic immigrant groups, the Issei worked on sugar and pineapple plantations. The children of the Issei were the Nisei, the second generation in Hawaiʻi. They are the first generation of Japanese descent to be born and receive their entire education in America, learning Western values and holding US citizenship.

Over time, many Issei and Nisei moved to Honolulu and other developing urban centers. The alien land laws encouraged urbanization since non-citizens could not own land. Many of the Issei became independent wage earners, merchants, shopkeepers, and tradesmen. They sought and began to achieve upward mobility. (Nordyke and Matsumoto)

On July 7, 1937, Japan invaded China to initiate the war in the Pacific; while the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, unleashed the European war.

If the US and Japan went to war, Japanese in Hawai‘i were seen as potentially dangerous. Both the Army and the FBI gathered data on Japanese residents in the late-1930s.

Fingerprinting and registering of aliens began in August of 1940 under provisions of the federal Alien Registration Act; some 6,000 aliens in Hilo alone were registered and fingerprinted beginning in September of 1940. (Farrell)

During the Fall of 1941 diplomatic relations between the US and Japan, which had been steadily deteriorating, took a sudden turn for the worse.

An FBI memo, dated December 4, 1941, referenced the “custodial detention list,” a listing of people who should be arrested in the event of outbreak of war. (Farrell)

On December 7, 1941, Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. At that time, Hawaii’s Japanese population was about 158,000, more than one-third of the territory’s total population. (Cohen)

Less than 4 hours after the Pearl Harbor attack, territorial governor Joseph B Poindexter invoked the Hawaii Defense Act giving him absolute wartime power in Hawai‘i.

By mid-afternoon (3:30 pm) the decision to place the territory under martial law was made, suspending the writ of habeas corpus and placing control of Hawaiʻi under Lieutenant General Walter C. Short, who became Military Governor.

The War Department, working under the authority of martial law, ordered that everyone on the list be interned. (Moniz Nakamura)

Kilauea Military Camp (KMC) at Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park (then known as Hawaii National Park) had been a quiet military recreation facility. By the end of the day on December 7th, it became a detainment camp.

For the island of Hawai‘i, the FBI’s detention list included a total of 82 individuals: 67 consular agents, 3 priests, and 12 “others” (business leaders and other important people in the Japanese American community). (Farrell)

The local police, with assistance from the FBI and Army Intelligence, immediately rounded up and detained the “suspicious aliens” – most of them prominent figures in the Japanese community. (Chapman)

Traveling under police custody in several cars, they passed the Hilo entrance of the park and proceeded to KMC where they were held under military guard in the small camp stockade and in nearby barracks. Within a few days, others had joined this group, which eventually expanded to approximately 130 men.

The detainees included prominent Japanese residents from Hilo and outlying planation areas, many of them familiar to both military and NPS personnel. Many were teachers; others were prominent business or community figures. (Chapman)

“At Kilauea, internees had to walk among soldiers armed with bayonets. While food was plentiful and nutritious, the dignity of the people was taken away. Internees were constantly accompanied by soldiers – even to the latrine”.

At mealtime, inmates lined up to go to the mess hall, which was across the open ground from their barracks, between ten guards with guns and fixed bayonets (Hoshida; Farrell)

In the mess hall, prisoners were initially surprised by the bounty of food that was available to them and as detainee Myoshu Sasai reported, “we could eat all that we wanted to. If they ran out of something, all we had to do was to raise our hand.”

A long serving counter separated the kitchen from the mess hall. Inmates picked up stainless serving trays and silverware and walked single file in front of the serving tables while waiting for kitchen personnel to serve them food, then sat six to wooden tables and benches. (Nakamura; Densho)

A sense of camaraderie developed among the inmates as noted by inmate Yoshio “George” Hoshida who observed that “here, sharing together the same fate in this time of emergency, they were brought together closer as humans on equal plane and closer comradeship.” (Nakamura; Densho)

For one hour every day, detainees were allowed outside for exercise. Inmates also occupied their days reading magazines and books, walking around, or writing letters. For many, letter writing was the only way of communicating with their families and maintaining personal ties.

Although letters were censored with officials cutting out any account of the camp, Hoshida recalled that “letter writing became the main consolation and receiving them was a source of great pleasure to be looked forward to each day.” (Nakamura; Densho)

Building 34, now the Crater Rim Café, Lava Lounge and post office, was used as the internee barracks. Building 35, now the recreation center, was built as an enlisted men’s mess hall and converted to a dormitory in 1919. It was used as the internee mess hall in 1943, but became the recreation hall in 1945. (Farrell)

Internee hearings were held in the Federal Building on Waianuenue Avenue in downtown Hilo. Because the hearings lasted several days, it is probable that internees were held overnight at the Old Police Station, on Kalākaua Street and directly across Kalākaua Park from the Federal Building. (Farrell)

By mid-February 1942, the military government determined that under the Geneva Convention interned aliens could not be held in a combat zone.

On February 15, authorities announced that immediate family members could visit. In anticipation of an imminent transfer to another facility, families were advised to bring warm clothes and that each internee could possess $50.

Noting that the internees were not prisoners of war, the authorities soon began the process of relocation to Sand Island or eventual transfer to the continental United States. The first group of 106 internees departed Kīlauea on March 6; the last group of 25 left on May 12. (Chapman)

In all, between 1,200 and 1,400 local Japanese in Hawai’i were interned, along with about 1,000 family members. By contrast, Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorized the mass exclusion and detention of all Japanese Americans living in the West Coast states, resulting in the eventual incarceration of 120,000 people.

The detainees were never formally charged and granted only token hearings. Many of the detainees’ sons served with distinction in the US armed forces, including the legendary 100th Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team and Military Intelligence Service.

Following the departure of Japanese inmates in 1942, in June 1944, an addition to KMC was built on the west side, in the area that is now the motor pool. These facilities would serve as a prisoner of war (POW) camp for Koreans and Okinawans who had been brought to the US from islands captured from the Japanese. (Moniz Nakamura)

Military authorities assigned the POWs to maintenance work around the camp. The prisoners generally worked without supervision, mostly on landscape projects and other maintenance work. (Chapman)

The current chain link fence around Tours & Transportation (Bldg 84), Housekeeping (Bldg 81) and Fire & Paramedic Services (Bldg 59) follows the same footprint as the outer wire of the POW camp enclosure. (KMC Walking Tour Narrative)