NPS names first superintendent of Honouliuli National Historic Site

KUNIA, Hawaii (HawaiiNewsNow) - The National Park Service has named its first superintendent of the Honouliuli National Historic Site, the location of a former World War II internment and prisoner-of-war camp in Central Oahu.

Hanako Wakatsuki has been acting chief of interpretation and education at Pearl Harbor National Memorial since October 2020 and acting site manager at Honouliuli National Historic Site since November 2020.

The Idaho native said she has a unique connection to the site because her own family was held at several Japanese internment camps during World War II.

“I look forward to serving the area’s communities and sharing the history of civilians, POWs and Native Hawaiians who are connected to this site,” Wakatsuki said.

The site — which is a unit within the national park service that interprets the history of incarceration in Hawaii during World War II — is not yet open to visitors.