Preserving Forgotten History

By Associated Press and Molokai Dispatch staff

Not many people in or outside of Hawaii know the state hosted internment camps – preliminary studies have identified 13 sites in Hawaii where people were confined for varying lengths of time between the 1941 start of the war and the war’s end in 1945.

Honouliuli Gulch on Oahu, which held 1,200 people between 1943 and 1945, was the largest camp in Hawaii.

The National Park Service is holding public meetings over the next month to get input on internment camps in Hawaii during World War II to help it determine the best way to preserve these sites and share their history.

Meetings are due to be held through March on all six islands where the camps were located: Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Hawai`i Island. Two meetings will be hosted on Molokai on March 17 at the Mitchell Pauole Center: 3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.

The service plans to evaluate the significance of the sites and consider a range of preservation alternatives.