{"id":2563,"date":"2026-07-13T22:36:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:36:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2563"},"modified":"2026-07-13T22:36:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T22:36:59","slug":"guided-tours-take-visitors-into-honouliuli-internment-camps-hell-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2563","title":{"rendered":"Guided tours take visitors into Honouliuli internment camp\u2019s \u2018Hell Valley\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Other than brush, overgrown grass, some birds singing in the distance, and perhaps a gust of wind coming in, there\u2019s really not much going on in Honouliuli Gulch these days.<\/p>\n

Read more Spotlight Now: Belatti, Kawakami talk policy in lieutenant governor forum<\/a><\/p>\n

More than 80 years ago, it was a different story.<\/p>\n

Following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a hasty prisoner of war compound was built in this barren area of Oahu and named the Honouliuli Internment Camp.<\/p>\n

Some of the Japanese Americans who were imprisoned here had another name for this place: \u201cJigoku dani,\u201d or \u201cHell Valley.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere is a reason why the Japanese-Americans nicknamed it Hell\u2019s Valley. It\u2019s a very rugged environment. It\u2019s deep in the gulf to the valley,\u201d said Christine Ogura, superintendent of the Honouliuli National Historic Site.<\/p>\n

Now, for the first time, you will be able to understand the \u201chell\u201d internees experienced, as guided tours into what is now known as the Honouliuli National Historic Site will be offered to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re going to have an opportunity to actually walk original historic roads that people who were incarcerated there, their family members walked as well,\u201d Ogura said. \u201cEven though the camp was closed and we don\u2019t have any original structures left, because when the military closed in 1946, they actually took everything down. But we do still have original, like the concrete slab foundation of the mess hall, where families were able to reunite with their mothers and their fathers during visitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The internment camp opened in 1943 and was the largest and longest-used incarceration site in the islands. At its peak, Honouliuli held over 4,000 prisoners of war from Italy, Taiwan, Korea, Philippines and had the largest contingent made up of Japanese Americans. <\/p>\n

Read more Lindsey Graham\u2019s sister will serve the remainder of his term, governor says<\/a><\/p>\n

For Superintendent Ogura, what happened here is personal since she is a second-generation American of Japanese ancestry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out that this happened here and being Nisei myself and my parents are Issei, I reflected: had I been born a generation earlier it could have been me and my mom,\u201d she said. \u201cI think locally it\u2019s an important history to conserve and perpetuate because it is important that our communities know that this happened locally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the National Park Service announced tours will be offered at Honouliuli, the public response has been overwhelming.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI will say the response has been humbling when we released the dates. It booked up within 25 minutes and we currently have a waiting list of over 1,700 people,\u201d Ogura said.<\/p>\n

Tours at the Honouliuli National Historic Site will begin on July 18. If you were not able to get a slot this time around, more availabilities will be offered next year.<\/p>\n

Read more Police investigate fatal three-vehicle crash that killed 21-year-old woman on Alii Drive in Kailua-Kona<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time, you will be able to understand the \u201chell\u201d internees experienced, as guided tours at the Honouliuli National Historic Site begin July 18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nGuided tours take visitors into Honouliuli internment camp\u2019s \u2018Hell Valley\u2019 - Hawaii Moving Insider<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hawaiimovinginsider.com\/?p=2563\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Guided tours take visitors into Honouliuli internment camp\u2019s \u2018Hell Valley\u2019 - 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