Sand Island (Hawaii) Informations

Sand Island, formerly known as Quarantine Island, is a small island within the city of Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. The island lies at the entrance to Honolulu Harbor.

It was known as Quarantine Island during the nineteenth century when it was used to quarantine ships believed to carry contagious passengers.

During World War II, Sand Island was used as an Army internment camp to house Japanese Americans as well as expatriates from Germany, Italy and other Axis countries living in Hawaii. The camp opened in December 1941, soon after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent mass arrests of civilians accused — often without evidence — of espionage or other fifth column activity. Over 600 Hawaiian residents, many of them U.S. citizens would pass through Sand Island before it was closed in March 1943. Most of the internees had been transferred to Army and Department of Justice internment camps on the mainland beginning in February 1942; the remaining 149 were moved to the newly constructed Honouliuli Internment Camp.

During the 1970s, over 100 homeless native Hawaiians cleaned up the garbage that filled the island, built homes and took up residence. In the early 1980s, 180 acres of the island were reclaimed by the State of Hawaii for industrial and recreational development. Those who had taken up residence were evicted without compensation.

Sand Island Detention Camp

This camp detained internees until March 1, 1943, having immediately opened after the Pearl Harbor attack. Approximately $500,000 was spent on improving and maintaining the facilities. At one point, it consisted of two enclosures holding 250 Japanese males each, one holding 40 females of mixed races and one for 25 people of German or Italian ancestry.

The detention camp served as the principal transfer and holding site for Hawaii's civilian detainees for fifteen months. Shipments of Sand Island inmates to the U.S. mainland for prolonged confinement commenced in February 1942 and continued until the closure of the civilian camp in March 1943. By that point, more than six hundred local residents from across the Hawaiian Islands had passed through Sand Island on their way to continental camps. Two years later Sand Island was converted into a POW camp. By September 1945 the site held 1,010 Koreans and 952 Italians. Today Sand Island is home to a state recreation area, a U.S. Coast Guard base, a wastewater treatment facility, and an assortment of industrial facilities, but no evidence of the wartime detention center remains.

World War II

Dec. 7, 1941 — 7:57 am: Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. 4:25 pm: martial law declared by Gov. Joseph B. Poindexter. Detention of local Japanese begins

Dec. 8, 1941 — Sand Island camp activated; it housed about 300 Issei and Nisei men and a handful of women. Camps are also activated on the islands of Hawai‘i (Kīlauea Military Camp), Kauaʻi (Kalaheo Stockade), and Maui (Haiku Camp) over the next few days.

Dec. 9, 1941 — Total arrested as of Dec. 9: 473. Breakdown: 345 Issei, 22 Nisei, 74 German nationals, 19 citizens of German ancestry, 11 Italian nationals, 2 citizens of Italian ancestry.

Feb. 19, 1942 — President Franklin Roosevelt issues Executive Order 9066, laying the groundwork for the mass forced removal and detention of 110,000 Japanese Americans living on the West Coast.

Feb. 21, 1942 — 199 prisoners at Sand Island are transported to mainland detention centers. Five more shipments take place in 1942 and 3 more in 1943. Meanwhile, prisoners held in neighbor island detention centers are transported to Sand Island.

March 30, 1942 — Total number of detainees by this date: 733, with 515 Issei, 93 Nisei, the remainder Germans or Italians.

March 1, 1943 —Sand Island closes; remaining detainees are transferred to a new camp in Honouliuli gulch.

Aug. 14, 1945 — Japan surrenders.

Nov. 14, 1945 — 450 internees return to Hawai‘i; 300 more return on Dec. 19. Total number of Hawai‘i internees: approx. 2,270.

Post War

1952 — Immigration Act of 1952 passes. Among other things, it allows for a token immigration quota for Japan and allows Issei to become naturalized citizens.

1988 — President Ronald Reagan signs the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law. Its provisions call for Japanese American survivors of the World War II internment to receive $20,000 reparations payments and a letter of apology from the President. The first recipients of reparations receive their checks and letters on October 9, 1990.

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