Born: 19 April 1910, United States
Died: 24 December 1972
Country most active: United States
Also known as: NA
The following is republished from the National Park Service and was written by Brittney Nareau. This piece falls under under public domain, as copyright does not apply to “any work of the U.S. Government” where “a work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. Government as part of that person’s official duties” (See, 17 U.S.C. §§ 101, 105).
“We came into this concentration camp for what reason. It is just like dew on the ground.
We are stepped on.
We can’t take our head up.
There are thousands of things to be recalled in our memory.
Months and days spins like the trade-winds.”
Haruko Takahashi
Haruko Takahashi was a Shintō priestess who spent part of World War II imprisoned at Honouliuli Internment Camp on O’ahu, Hawai’i. She was born on April 19, 1910 in Kohala on Hawai’i Island to parents who had immigrated from Japan. Takahashi was a Nisei who held dual citizenship. She lived in Hawai’i when it was a territory of the United States between 1898 and 1959, before seeing the establishment of Hawai’i as a state in 1959. Takahashi’s journey to becoming a Shintō priestess started when she was a teenager. Growing up, Takahashi had poor eyesight that could not be addressed by surgery. She credits her introduction to the Konkokyo (or Konko) religion, a sect of ancient Japanese Shintōism, with the miraculous recovery of her eyesight at the age of seventeen. By January 14, 1940, Takahashi had established the Konko Mission of Wahiawa on O’ahu, a branch of the Church of Konko Mission of Honolulu. Just under two years later, World War II changed her life completely.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese military attacked the Pearl Harbor Naval Base on O’ahu, leading the United States to enter World War II. Almost immediately, martial law was declared in Hawaii and government officials started to round up residents suspected of harboring ill intentions against the United States. A vast majority of the eight hundred residents of Hawaii who were initially assembled, were of Japanese descent, and many were community leaders like Takahashi. The detainees were confined in various existing facilities located on the six major Hawaiian islands and eventually moved to, the U.S. Immigration Station and Sand Island Detention Camp. Many detainees also were sent to mainland Department of Justice and War Relocation camps. The opening of Honouliuli Internment Camp in 1943 provided an alternative to moving detainees to the mainland that was more permanent and isolated.
Takahashi was arrested early in the raids on December 14, 1941, primarily because of a trip she had made to Japan in 1933. Government officials believed her ties to Japan made her sympathetic to Japanese imperial policy and potentially disloyal to the United States. When interrogating Takashi during hearings, the Board of Officers and Civilians asked questions regarding her education in the United States, claiming that she spoke “very little English” despite living in Hawai’i her entire life. They also questioned her religion, unsuccessfully trying to tie Shintōism to worship of the Japanese Emperor. The Board claimed that “in view of her activities as a Shintō priestess and her apparent loyalty to Japan,” she was “dangerous to the public peace, safety, and internal security of this country.” She was not allowed an attorney during her incarceration, but she did write letters advocating for her release. Her pleas for justice read like poetry:
Even when we sing our song does not sing like a melody.
Thus clothes can be dyed, for instance, yellow could be dyed
To brown, white, into red, but our heart cannot be pounding if we are aim¬ing for Japan, we can’t think about America.
We are born into this.
The room which we are in is just cold at night,
We dream of our home, also homeland.
Even in the moonlight we can’t walk.
What fun we’re going to have.
Although the Military Governor’s Review Board denied Takahashi’s request for liberation in March 1944, she was released in July of that year. By the end of World War II, more than 2,000 people of Japanese descent from Hawai’i were incarcerated, but none were ever found guilty of acts against the United States.
Takahashi re-opened the Konko Mission of Wahiawa on January 1, 1948. She made one more pilgrimage to Japan in 1963, to visit the Konkokyo Headquarters in Okayama. She died on December 24, 1972, and her life is still celebrated every year in a memorial service at the Konko Mission.
It is just like a trade-wind, always going around.
When we wear our shoes and walk on the street.
We came here but don’t sit here like a dummy.
Think fast like an arrow, but don’t think what they say.
Think that what you have been taught, but don’t cry, be strong.
You will obey orders, but obey the right ones.