Honouliuli National Historic Site

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Honouliuli National Historic Site

Honouliuli National Historic Site tells the experience of prisoners of war and incarcerated American civilians in Hawai‘i during WWII.

It is the site of the largest and longest-run incarceration camp in the Hawaiian Islands. Honouliuli National Historic Site tells the history of incarceration, martial law, and the experience of prisoners of war in Hawai‘i during World War II.

06/24/2026

The second talk of our Remembrance Awakened: Speaker Series is titled "Preserving the Incarceration: How Museum Collections Keep the Story Alive".

Featuring the archivist for the Japanese American National Museum, Jamie Hendricks, Heart Mountain's Collections Manager, Rachyl Soloai, and Pearl Harbor National Memorial's Museum Technician, Mikael Fox, this talk will answer the question: "How are artifacts still telling incarceration stories decades later?"

Learn from the keepers of history - the collections managers, archivists, and museum techs helping to interpret the history of incarceration sites across the United States for this special discussion.

Registration is required to attend this event.

EVENT DETAILS:
July 8, 5:30-6:30pm HST
Link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88481179326

06/22/2026

Please join us on September 27 at the Hawaii Theatre Center for the culminating event of this year’s commemoration. Acclaimed ʻukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro will debut an original composition inspired by the camp, alongside performances by members of the Hawaiʻi Youth Symphony Orchestra, taiko master Kenny Endo, and other special guests. We hope you’ll join us for this special evening honoring the legacy of Honouliuli National Historic Site.

Information about the 80 Years of Closure Commemoration is now available on our partner Pacific Historic Parks (PHP) website. Pacific Historic Parks, the park's non-profit partner, is sponsoring the finale event for our 80th commemoration and has shared the following so people can learn more about this event: https://honouliuliawakened.com/

PHP also has a page where you can continue to follow for updates about this and other 80th commemoration events they are sponsoring: https://www.facebook.com/p/Pacific-Historic-Parks-Honouliuli-61575651402418/

06/21/2026

An exciting item was gifted to the park last month - a 3D model of Honouliuli Internment Camp in the gulch, complete with topography and even the structures that made up the compounds. This model is a fantastic interpretive piece that our outreach team can use to show how the camp looked. It will be the perfect addition that brings our history closer to the community than ever before. Catch a glimpse at our next table event! This model is a copy of the one displayed at Hawaii's Plantation Village in their Honouliuli exhibit.

This generous donation was coordinated and funded by the Hale Foundation and University of Hawai'i at Mānoa School of Architecture Dean Maureen 'Mo' Zell, created by AEPAC: Project Management, Model Design, Materials, Construction staff Natalie Besl and intern Kate Cousins with support from University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Architecture FabLab Director: Steve Hill. Mahalo for your support of our park!

06/16/2026

Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) have a strong working relationship with one another, whether they are run by the National Park Service or through nonprofit organizations.

Honouliuli NHS archaeologist Jon Mayes spent Memorial Day Weekend at Manzanar National Historic Site assisting their archeologist, Jeff Burton, in the continued excavation of Manzanar's Block 6 mess hall Japanese garden and pond. Since Honouliuli National Historic Site is so new in comparison to other JACS, it's beneficial to learn how other places operate and tell their incarceration story while also providing assistance to them through work exchanges like this.

Sister JACS have a strong working relationship with each other that is foundational to their success. Although each site has different stories to share, they are united in their mission to tell this history of injustice and promote peace and remembrance.

06/11/2026

June marks the beginning of Obon season around the Hawaiian Islands. The season combines many beliefs and cultures with the idea that the deceased return to the material world for a brief time. During Obon, bon odori festivals are commonplace. Bon odori is a style of dance originating in Japan. Often times during these festivals, the traditional Japanese drum, the taiko, is played to increase merriment during the dances or for ceremonial purposes.

The first recorded bon dance in the United States happened in Hawaiʻi. In 1885, 900 Japanese immigrants arrived to work the sugar plantations. That same year, laborers at a plantation in Wainaku on the Big Island organized the first American obon. They danced in the cane fields. (https://historichawaii.org/article/the-o-bon-tradition-in-hawaii/)

At Honouliuli Internment Camp, many incarcerees, despite their bleak circumstances, still participated in this tradition of Obon. The only artifact known to have the name of the camp written on it - ホノウリウリ監禁所 - is a taiko drum from an Obon service held within the camp. In August 15, 1944, Bishop Zenkyo Komagata beat on this taiko drum during the service, a telling reminder that despite their incarceration, they were true to the traditions they held dear.

06/08/2026

The Honouliuli NHS team has been overwhelmed by the amount of attention, support, and excitement the opening of tours brought the past couple days. The desire to visit the park by our community is not going unnoticed by us!

While we are sorry to announce that 2026 tours are full and understand there may be some disappointment, please stay tuned as we hope to announce the 2027 tour dates near the end of this year. We hope to increase the number of tours given in 2027 as our team of volunteers grow!

Waitlists are still open. Please check our website's Public Tour Information page to see updated approximate numbers of our waitlists: https://www.nps.gov/hono/planyourvisit/public-tour-information.htm

Even if you were unable to make it to a tour this year, we hope that we will see all of you at our many community events for the 80 Years of Closure Commemoration as well as table events in our community. Keep following our page to learn about these events and where our team will be around the island chain in 2026.

Mahalo nui loa for all the aloha, love, and support for our small park.

Photo courtesy of Hawaii's Plantation Village

06/07/2026

For the 80 Years of Closure Commemoration of when Honouliuli Internment Camp closed, the National Park Service in partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, Kinetic Productions, and Pacific Historic Parks, will be bringing special film screenings of "Voices Behind Barbed Wire" on all neighboring islands.

"Voices Behind Barbed Wire", a film by Kinetic Productions, tells the story of Japanese-Americans living in Hawaiʻi after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and how their families were affected by martial law. Following the film will be a panel discussion with Ryan Kawamoto, director of the film, Carole Hayashino, President Emeritus of the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, and Christine Ogura, Superintendent of Honouliuli National Historic Site.

There is no registration required to attend and seats for the screening will be first come first serve.

In June, in partnership with the Japanese Cultural Center of Kona and the Kona Japanese Civic Association, the film will be shown at the Kona Elks Lodge 2616 on Hawai'i Island. There will also be a Honouliuli NHS pop-up exhibit display at the Kailua-Kona Public Library all month in coordination with the film.

EVENT DETAILS:
"Voices Behind Barbed Wire" Film Screening
June 21, 2026, 12:30-3:00pm
Kona Elks Lodge, 75-170 Hualalai Rd., Kailua-Kona

Photo courtesy of Ryan Kawamoto/Kinetic Productions

06/05/2026

ANNOUNCEMENT: Honouliuli National Historic Site's guided, public tour reservations are officially OPEN! Take the opportunity to be one of the first visitors ever to Honouliuli National Historic Site on a guided tour by the National Park Service.

Due to staff and volunteer capacity, tours will be held once a month on Saturdays. A shuttle bus will be transporting tour groups and docents to the park from Hawaii's Plantation Village in Waipahu and back. We hope to increase the number of tours we give in the future. Each tour can take up to 22 people. If a tour is full, a waitlist will be made.

List of 2026 tour dates:
- July 18
- August 22
- September 19
- October 17
- November 14
- December 12

All instructions on how to reserve a spot on the tour, transportation details, and other information can be found on our website's Public Tour Information page: https://www.nps.gov/hono/planyourvisit/public-tour-information.htm

Reservations cannot be made via social media. Please be sure to follow all instructions carefully to reserve a slot. Dates for 2027 will be posted near the end of this year.

06/02/2026

As a part of Honouliuli National Historic Site's 80 Years of Closure Commemoration, they will be partnering with Pacific Historic Parks to bring a new, free, virtual speaker series to the community. Titled "Remembrance Awakened", this speaker series will focus on remembrance through the lenses of art, architecture, institutions, and technology. By examining remembrance through these undervalued lenses, we can expand what we understand about the incarceration story by learning how far its impacts spread.

June's Remembrance Awakened speaker will be Ellen Carson, who represented Japanese Americans in a class action lawsuit in the 80s that went to the United States Supreme Court to obtain justice for the Americans who had their constitutional rights stripped from them during WWII.

Ellen's talk will focus on legal challenges to the wartime injustices that sought to protect the constitutional rights of Americans of Japanese ancestry during the wartime, and subsequent legal efforts to obtain apology, compensation, and recognition of the severe injustices inflicted on this community.

This is a free, virtual event. Registration is required to attend (link below).

EVENT DETAILS:
June 16, 5:30-6:30pm HST
Link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/YEe61JfUToWtkglOZHHFBA

05/31/2026

For the first time, Honouliuli National Historic Site's pop-up exhibit will be making its way to Hawaiʻi Island's Kailua-Kona Public Library for the entire month of June!

Following the success of its Oʻahu tour last year, the pop-up exhibit will be traveling to other Hawaiian Islands and will provide the perfect opportunity to reach audiences who have not yet had a chance to learn the foundations of this important history. Our traveling pop-up exhibit is able to conveniently share the story of Honouliuli Internment Camp and the National Park Service's stewardship of the site.

We hope you have a chance to visit the exhibit in June!

The pop-up exhibit is traveling in conjunction with the film screenings of Kinetic Productions' film, Voices Behind Barbed Wire to other islands this year as part of the 80 Years of Closure Commemoration of when Honouliuli Internment Camp closed in 1946.

Address

1 Arizona Memorial Place
Honolulu, HI
96818

Website

https://www.nps.gov/hono

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