Honouliuli Site Opens for Tours of WWII Camp

The National Park Service now offers guided tours of the former Oʻahu internment camp, where waitlists have reached hundreds of names.

Updated on Nov. 13, 2026 in National Parks

Honouliuli Site Opens for Tours of WWII Camp

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Do you think the government should be able to suspend citizens' rights during wartime?

Honouliuli National Historic Site, the largest internment camp in Hawaiʻi for Japanese Americans on Oʻahu, opened to the public in July 2026. The National Park Service is offering guided tours of the land where the camp once stood.

Why it matters

Following the Pearl Harbor attack, the territory of Hawaiʻi was placed under military martial law, allowing the military to arrest U.S. citizens and suspend their constitutional due process rights. The site offers a direct look at how that period affected a population that was almost 40% Japanese ancestry.

Guided tour waitlists for November and December have reached hundreds of names, against a Hawaiʻi population that was almost 40% Japanese ancestry during the camp's operation. Tour capacity and how many waitlisted visitors can be accommodated were not stated.

The players

National Park Service

The federal agency that manages the nation's national parks and historic sites, now operating the Honouliuli National Historic Site on Oʻahu.

Christine Ogura

Site Superintendent of Honouliuli National Historic Site, a Nisei, second-generation Japanese American born and raised in Hawaiʻi.

The details

Internment at Honouliuli was selective, targeting community leaders, school teachers, newspaper writers, religious leaders, and government leaders. Citizens in the territory were fingerprinted, subject to curfew, and had their mail restricted and censored.

1941: Pearl Harbor attack; martial law imposed on the Hawaiian territory afterward.
July 2026: Honouliuli National Historic Site opened to the public.
November and December 2026: Guided tour waitlists have reached hundreds of names.
Next year (2027): The park service hopes to share the site with the community.

Historical Context

Honouliuli's history parallels the mainland internments carried out under Executive Order 9066, but in Hawaiʻi the detentions were enabled by military martial law imposed after the Pearl Harbor attack. The site adds a Hawaiʻi-specific record to the national account of wartime incarceration.

Visitors hoping to join a tour should expect long waits, since November and December waitlists already hold hundreds of names. Checking the park service's listings before planning a trip to Oʻahu can help set realistic expectations.

The takeaway

The Honouliuli site shows how quickly civil liberties can be suspended under martial law, and visiting it is one way to understand that history firsthand.

What happens next

The park service plans to share the site with the community next year and is gathering public input on how the park should be managed over the next 20 years.