This event is a part of Honouliuli National Historic Site's 10th Anniversary Celebration.

Dr. Mary Kunmi Yu Danico, Director of the Center for Oral History (COH) and Professor of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, will be joined by Dukhee Lee Murabayashi, President of the Korean Immigration Research Institute in Hawaiʻi and Associate Member at the Center for Korean Studies. Murabayashi is a leading scholar on the history of Koreans in Hawaiʻi.The Center for Oral History completed its administrative oral history project on Honouliuli in 2025 and is currently exploring the life experiences of Korean conscripted laborers who were brought to Honouliuli as prisoners of war between 1943 and 1945. The COH team is conducting archival research in both the U.S. and Korea and has interviewed descendants of Korean POWs who later returned to Jeju Island. Murabayashi contributed significantly to this research by translating the names of over 2,700 Korean POWs listed in the Free Press and has worked closely with Honouliuli efforts to highlight how Hawaiʻi’s Korean communities interacted with and responded to the presence of these POWs. Together, Danico and Murabayashi will offer a glimpse at the lived experiences of Korean POWs during their internment in Honouliuli and share insights into their lives upon returning to Jeju Island, S. Korea.