Okinawan POWs were the last group among four major ethnic groups of POWs to arrive in Hawaiʻi during and immediately following WWII. Although the exact reason for their forced transport to Hawaiʻi from the battleground of Okinawa is unclear, this presentation will examine clues that reveal details of their lives in Honouliuli based on US military documents, interviews and their memoirs in Japanese.

Kaori Akiyama is an Assistant Professor at the Division of Japanese Studies in the Graduate School of Humanities at Osaka University. After studying at the University of Hawaiʻi, she received her Ph.D. in Japanese History from The Graduate University for Advanced Studies [SOKENDAI] in 2018. She is the author of "The History of Japanese Internment in Hawaiʻi: Changes in the Camps and Camp Life during the Pacific War" (2020, in Japanese). Her areas of study are the history of Japanese in Hawaiʻi and Okinawan Prisoners of War during WWII and the study of cultures and representation.