Koreans outnumbered Japanese Americans at Hawaii incarceration camp, research reveals

A University of Hawaii oral history initiative is spotlighting how Korean prisoners of war vastly outnumbered Japanese Americans at the Honouliuli Internment Camp during World War II — about 2,700 Koreans compared to 400 Japanese Americans.

Shocking discovery: The Center for Oral History at the University of Hawaii has partnered with the National Park Service to gather stories from Korean American families whose relatives were held at the camp. The effort expands on prior work by the late scholar Yong-ho Ch’oe, who taught at the university, and Duk Hee Lee Murabayashi, president of the Korean Immigration Research Institute in Hawaii. Murabayashi compiled a complete registry of Korean detainees with their names and hometowns, helping descendants trace family connections.

Korean community leaders, according to Civil Beat, expressed shock at learning this history. “Until a few months ago, I certainly did not know about Koreans who, during World War II, ended up as prisoners of war right here in Hawaiʻi at Honouliuli Internment Camp,” David Suh, president of the United Korean Association of Hawaii, said at a recent talk.

About the camp: The Honouliuli Internment Camp opened in March 1943 in central Oahu and housed prisoners and civilians in separate sections until the end of the war. The Korean detainees, as per Ch’oe’s research, were primarily noncombatant laborers whom Japan had conscripted from occupied Korea and deployed across Pacific territories before American forces captured them in various battles.

Hundreds of Koreans arrived after each military operation, including from Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, where only 104 of 276 workers survived. Following Saipan’s capture in 1944, between 300 and 400 wounded Koreans reached the camp, bearing injuries from both American gunfire and Japanese sword attacks that revealed “military abuse at the hands of the Japanese.” The U.S. military, however, did not publicize information about the Korean presence.

Deprived of liberty, twice: The Korean story at Honouliuli challenges the standard narrative centered on Japanese American experiences during wartime detention. These men faced dual imprisonment — first forced into service by Japan’s colonial occupation of Korea since 1910, then captured by the U.S. during Pacific battles. Unlike other prisoner groups, Koreans maintained strong anti-Japanese attitudes and “were extremely pro-Allies” due to their hope for liberation from Japanese rule, according to a 1945 report by the Honolulu Advertiser.

Tensions between Korean and Japanese prisoners grew so intense that officials had to separate them into different compounds. Aside from Koreans and Japanese, the camp also held Italians, Germans and four Filipinos, which included three fishermen captured by the military and one man who claimed to have served with American forces in guerrilla warfare.

Plans are underway for additional public programs highlighting Korean experiences at the site as part of ongoing commemoration efforts.