Internment of Japanese Americans on Angel Island during World War II

March 17, 2015 - June 5, 2020

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF), thanks in large part to a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites program of the National Park Service, has researched the story of the 700+ Americans of Japanese descent who were arrested by the FBI in Hawaii and the West Coast after Pearl Harbor and spent some time on Angel Island. AIISF’s webpage with more history is online. The immigration station processed about 85,000 Japanese immigrants from 1910 to 1940, but during World War II was a temporary internment facility operated by the Army’s Fort McDowell. Most internees spent three weeks or fewer on the island. From there, the internees were sent to Department of Justice and US Army camps such as Missoula, Montana; Fort Sill, Oklahoma; and Lordsburg and Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This series includes stories of internees with information from their families and the National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, MD. If you have information to share about former internees, please contact AIISF at info@aiisf.org.

Angel Island (Calif.) immigration incarceration Japanese Americans National Archives and Records Administration United States U.S. National Park Service (organization) World War II

Stories from this series

George Hishida – A Life in Photography Interrupted by World War II

March 26, 2015 • Grant Din

George Mioya Hishida was born in Fukushima, Japan, in 1896 to a Christian missionary father who was absent from the family for long periods of time. He had two brothers and two sisters, and after graduating high school in 1913, he immigrated through Seattle and then went to Los Angeles to join his oldest brother. The brothers then worked in Salt Lake City, Utah, where his brother worked on the railroad and George worked as a sugar beet contractor and …

Angel Island (Calif.) California citizenship concentration camps Fresno generations George Hoshida George Mioya Hishida George Photography Studio immigrants immigration imprisonment incarceration Issei Japan Japanese Americans letters migration naturalization photographers photography repatriation Tule Lake concentration camp United States World War II World War II camps

Takeo Akizaki: American Citizen Detained Twice on Angel Island During World War II

March 17, 2015 • Grant Din

Takeo Akizaki was one of nineteen men detained on Angel Island from August 5 to 7, 1942. This group was composed of men from Hawai`i, and according to Yasutaro Soga, all were U.S. citizens. Akizaki, who had also been detained on the island in March of that year on his way to Department of Justice camps, became a Shinto priest, and his beliefs were instrumental in his detention in these camps for most of the duration of World War II. …

Angel Island (Calif.) California clergy generations Hawaii Honolulu Honouliuli internment camp National Archives and Records Administration Oahu religions Religious leaders Sand Island detention facility Sand Island (Hawaii) Sansei Shinto Takeo Akizaki United States Waipahu World War II World War II camps

Authors in This Series

Grant Din @grantdin

Grant Din is community relations director at the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, where his work includes coordination and creation of content for AIISF’s Immigrant Voices website and research into the World War II experiences of internees of Japanese descent on the island. Din has worked in nonprofits in the Asian American community for thirty years and serves on the boards of Mu Films and the Marcus Foster Education Fund. An avid genealogist, he enjoys working with friends to help others explore their Asian American roots. Din has a B.A. in sociology from Yale University and an M.A. in public policy analysis from Claremont Graduate University and lives with his family in Oakland.

Updated February 2015

Marissa Shoji @Marissa

Marissa Shoji is a Girl Scout from south San Jose, who is part of the San Jose Buddhist Church Betsuin Girl Scouts. She wrote a series of stories on Japanese immigrants detained on Angel Island during World War II as part of her Gold Award project, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. Working in conjunction with Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, her final plan is to create an exhibit dedicated to the Japanese experience on Angel Island during World War Two. She is very interested in spreading knowledge on the Japanese internment to those of the newer generations, so that their pain will never be forgotten, and instead will be built upon to create a better future.

Updated March 2020