HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.R. NO.

107

TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2010

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 

 

 

 

 


HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

HonORING THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII for their continued efforts to support the Hawaii Internment Project.

 

 

 


     WHEREAS, the evolution of a society free from the ills of hatred, prejudice, and greed rests upon the commitment to promote the proliferation of educational experiences for today’s youth, as observed by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt who wrote, "The ultimate victory of tomorrow is democracy, and through democracy with education, for no people in all the world can be kept eternally ignorant or eternally enslaved."; and

 

     WHEREAS, several hundred local Japanese were detained immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, in internment camps in the Territory of Hawaii, including the Sand Island Detention Center and Honouliuli Internment Camp on Oahu, Camp Kalaheo on Kauai, Haiku Camp on Maui, and Kilauea Detention Center on Hawaii Island; and

 

     WHEREAS, internees were housed in wooden barracks and tents which were patrolled by armed military guards and ringed with double barbed-wire fences and guard towers; and

 

     WHEREAS, while some internees were subsequently shipped to the mainland and others were released, most were imprisoned for the duration of the war with none ever charged with a crime; and

 

     WHEREAS, in 1945 these detention centers and internment camps were closed after most of the structures and fences were removed and over the years the camps vanished from view as they were covered entirely by foliage; and

 

     WHEREAS, THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII, a non profit organization, strives to share the history, heritage, and culture of the evolving Japanese American experience in Hawaii; and

     WHEREAS, for the past ten years, THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII's Resource Center and the Hawaii Confinement Sites Committee have been the driving forces behind The Hawaii Internment Project; and

 

     WHEREAS, supported by THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII, The Hawaii Internment Project has worked tirelessly in the collection, organization and preservation of internment primary resources; translation work of internee first-hand accounts, letters, poems, and diaries; education-related work including the donation of a 250 page folder of internment primary resources to every public high school; conducting oral history interviews of Hawaii internees and their children; and the creation of the Dark Clouds Over Paradise: The Hawaii Internees Story exhibit; and

 

     WHEREAS, through the assistance of THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII, The Hawaii Internment Project has focused on preserving and memorializing Hawaii Internment camp sites and has worked with Monsanto, the National Park Service, the Hawaii Congressional delegation, and the Hawaii State Legislature to achieve this goal; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2010, that this body hereby extends its warmest aloha and best wishes to THE JAPANESE CULTURAL CENTER OF HAWAII for their continued efforts to support the Hawaii Internment Project.

 

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii