HONOLULU — The highly anticipated documentary, “The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i,” is the first full-length documentary to chronicle the internment experience of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i. “There were over 100 people picked up from Kaua‘i,” director
HONOLULU — The highly anticipated documentary, “The Untold Story: Internment of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i,” is the first full-length documentary to chronicle the internment experience of Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i.
“There were over 100 people picked up from Kaua‘i,” director Ryan Kawamoto said.
The first full-length documentary chronicling the Hawai‘i internment story will have a Kaua‘i premiere at 10 a.m. Saturday at the historic Waimea Theatre in Waimea.
Produced by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i, “The Untold Story” made its world premiere at the Hawai‘i International Film Festival in October 2012.
While the story of mass internment of Japanese Americans in California, Oregon and Washington has been well documented, very little is known about the internees and 13 confinement sites in Hawai‘i.
“For years and years, survivors didn’t want to share their story,” Kawamoto said. “It was too painful. People are starting to step forward and talk about what their fathers and grandfathers never said.”
Within 48 hours after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawai‘i authorities arrested several hundred local Japanese on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Maui and Hawai‘i island.
“There were four sites on Kaua‘i. They were located at the Wailua County Jail, the Kalaheo Stockade, the Waimea Jail and the Lihu‘e Plantation Gym,” Kawamoto said.
He is confident his crew found the Kalaheo Stockade and edited the film to include new footage. “A lot of facilities were military and were demolished after the war. Plus, records got lost in D.C.,” Kawamoto said. “It was like searching for a needle in a haystack of other needles at times.”
In the early days of the war, Kawamoto said, men and women were thrown into dark rooms and locked up before being sent to places such as Sand Island on O‘ahu, where they were strip-searched and subjected to hard labor while living in tents for months before housing was built.
“They had it worse than their Mainland counterparts,” he said. “Plus, it wasn’t uncommon for people to be transferred to six to eight camps.”
Kawamoto said initial estimates had 1,800 men and women picked up in Hawai‘i. He admits the actual number remains in flux, as the number recently increased to 2,300 men and women of Japanese ancestry were arrested, detained and interned in Hawai‘i.
He said it was complicated why even more people weren’t taken into custody, but said even as the FBI was keeping tabs on people, there were plenty of people behind the scenes and in the government who helped prevent more arrests in Hawai‘i as Japanese Americans made up 40 percent of Hawai‘i’s population and 30 percent of Hawai‘i’s labor force.
Those arrested included Buddhist and Shinto priests, Japanese language school officials, newspaper editors, business and community leaders, and nisei — second generation Japanese — who had been born in Hawai‘i, were educated in Japan and returned to live and work in Hawai‘i.
“The majority of people were picked up in 1941 to 1942,” Kawamoto said. There was no evidence of espionage or sabotage and no charges were ever filed against them.
This film chronicles their story through oral histories, documents, interviews and reenactments.
Kawamoto said the film holds great relevance today as the film serves to reminds people about discrimination.
“The same things happened to the Muslim community after 9/11,” he said.
He added that the film should help people understand more about gay rights issues.
“It was a form of bullying, of singling people out,” Kawamoto said of making ties to modern times. “Please do not repeat mistakes of the past.”
Tickets cost $10 each and available for purchase at the Historic Waimea Theatre box office from 6 to 9:30 p.m., Wednesday to Sunday or call the box office at 338-2027 or Theatre Manager Thomas Nizo at 645-0996.
Seating is limited. Following the film, there will be a panel discussion with Kawamoto and executive producers.
For more information on the film, email JCCH in Honolulu at info@jcch.com or call (808) 945-7633.
