*Taken From Their Families* is now on display at the WWII Mess Hall at the Angel Island Immigration Station.

Taken From Their Families: Japanese American Incarceration on Angel Island During World War II reveals the lesser-known history of Angel Island. The exhibit explores the events and policies that led to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II and presents stories from 24 individuals whose lives were forever changed after December 7, 1941.

After the U.S. Immigration Station closed in 1940, the U.S. Army used the remaining buildings to hold approximately 600 Japanese immigrants from Hawai`i and 100 from the continental United States.

Religious and community leaders, journalists, photographers, consular agents, and even martial artists were arrested because of their perceived ties to Japan. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the FBI separated men from their families and interned them for the duration of the war.

The men were typically held for a week or more on Angel Island before being sent to different camps throughout the U.S.

Taken From Their Families Virtual Exhibition

This virtual exhibit is based on the permanent exhibit installed on Angel Island. While nothing can fully replicate visiting the site in person, this virtual exhibition provides an opportunity to still learn about this important-to-remember chapter in the site’s history and our nation’s history.

One Family’s Story • Stories from the Camps • Military Sons and Daughters

PART ONE | On Orders of the President • Executive Order 9066 • A Step Toward Justice
After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the United States entered World War II. Find out what happened when the U.S. government tore families apart and the steps toward redress in the years since.

PART TWO | Angel Island Incarceration • North Garrison, Fort McDowell
When the U.S. Immigration Station closed in 1940, the U.S. Army reopened the site as a prisoner of war camp. Learn more about the site’s role as an internee processing center for Japanese Americans during the war.

PART THREE | Pathways of Internment • Post-Angel Island Incarceration • Power of Words
For the individuals detained at Angel Island, all were transferred to other sites across the U.S. during World War II. Trace their incarceration routes and their efforts to reunite with their families.

PART FOUR | Stories from the War • One Family’s Story • Military Sons and Daughters
The forced removal from their loved ones was only the beginning for these men. Learn more about what life was like for them inside the camps and the support some received from their children in the U.S. armed forces.

PART FIVE | What They Left Behind • Barracks Inscriptions
While waiting for their eventual release, internees often found solace in writing about their incarceration experience at the camps. Read what people wrote about Angel Island and see inscriptions that are still written on the barracks walls.

Illustration of Fort McDowell (formerly the U.S. Immigration Station) by George Hoshida. Courtesy of the Japanese American National Museum (Gift of June Hoshida Honma, Sandra Hoshida, and Carole Hoshida Kanada, 97.106.1W)

Japanese Americans Incarcerated on Angel Island During WWII

The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i maintains a directory of those who were arrested and confined in the Territory of Hawai`i during World War II.

Share Your Story

See the LEGO Model

Host the Exhibit

Download the Exhibit’s Facilitated Dialog Guide

Resources to Learn More About the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II

OVERVIEW OF JAPANESE AMERICAN IMPRISONMENT DURING WORLD WAR II

Kashima, Tetsuden. Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment during World War II. Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2003.

HISTORY OF THE IMPRISONMENT OF HAWAIIAN JAPANESE

Okawa, Gail. Remembering Our Grandfathers' Exile: US Imprisonment of Hawai`i's Japanese in World War II. Honolulu, University of Hawai`i Press, 2020.
Saiki, Patsy Sumie. Ganbare! An Example of Japanese Spirit. Honolulu, Kisaku, Inc., 1982

PERSONAL ACCOUNTS

Fukuda, Rev. Yoshiaki. My Six Years of Internment: An Issei's Struggle for Justice. San Francisco, Konko Church of San Francisco, 1980.
Furuya, Suikei. An Internment Odyssey. Honolulu, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i, 2017.
Honda, Gail, editor. Family Torn Apart: The Internment Story of the Otokichi Muin Ozaki Family. Honolulu, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai`i, 2012.
Hoshida, George and Tamae; Kim, Heidi, editor. Taken from the Paradise Isle: The Hoshida Family Story, 1912-1945. Boulder, University Press of Colorado, 2015.
Soga, Yasutaro. Life Behind Barbed Wire: The World War II Internment Memoirs of a Hawai`i Issei. Honolulu, University of Hawai`i Press, 2008.

POEMS AND INSCRIPTIONS

Egan, Charles. Voices of Angel Island: Inscriptions and Immigrant Poetry, 1910-1945. New York, Bloomsbury Academic, 2021.
Nakano, Jiro, and Kay Nakano, editors. Poets Behind Barbed Wire. Honolulu, Bamboo Ridge Press, 1983.

FILM (IN PROGRESS)

Katayanagi, Claudia. Exiled: The Real Internment Story

AIISF's Taken From Their Families: Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, co-curated by Grant Din, Edward Tepporn (AIISF), and Casey Dexter-Lee (AISP); contributing research by Marissa Shoji; exhibition design by Russell Nauman (AIISF), 2021.

This project was funded, in part, by a grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program.

Special Thanks
Angel Island State Park, Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i, National Japanese American Historical Society, Japanese American National Museum, and Densho