Prisoners of War

The year 2025 marks the 10th year since Honouliuli was designated as a National Monument, cementing it as a unit of the National Park Service. In 2019, Honouliuli National Monument was established as Honouliuli National Historic Site. To celebrate its 10th anniversary as a park, Honouliuli National Historic Site is partnering with over 50 organizations to connect communities to its important history of incarceration of prisoners of war and American civilians.

The realities of being a Prisoner of War at Fort Pulaski.

Popular media, such as books and films, have long been used to teach the story of Andersonville. The 1996 film "Andersonville" continues to be a popular classroom tool. This material is intended to assist teachers in clearly identifying historical reality versus Hollywood illusion and aiding students to think critically about the portrayal of historic events.

Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, led the U.S. into World War II and radically changed the lives of men, women, and children of Japanese ancestry living in the U.S. Forced to leave their homes, Japanese American citizens and resident aliens were incarcerated in 10 war relocation centers in remote locations throughout the country. One of these, Tule Lake in California, was the longest occupied and most repressive of all the government's centers.

What began as a burial ground for POWs who died during the Civil War continues to operate today. Andersonville is the only National Park Service national cemetery still open for new burials of eligible veterans. Over 20,000 military men and women, including veterans of Vietnam, WWII, Korea, the Civil War, and other conflicts, rest in honor in these hallowed grounds.

On December 7, 1941 Japan executed a coordinated, multi-pronged attack on the US home front. Within a few hours, they attacked Hawai’i, Guam, Howland Island, Midway Island, Wake Island, and the Philippines. These were not just military targets. They also hit sugar mills and the Honolulu airport in Hawai’i; the Pan Am Hotels in Guam and on Wake Island; and the settlement on Howland Island.

The attacks of December 7, 1941 that began at Pearl Harbor were not the only targets of America's enemies. By the time World War II was over, Japanese forces had attacked the US mainland and almost all American territories in the Pacific. Some of these places of the Greater United States fell under enemy occupation. In the Atlantic, German U-boats targeted cargo ships. Germany, Japan, and Russia all had operatives and spies living and working across the country.

During the war, the United States government incarcerated many people in camps and prisons across the home front. This included enemy aliens, prisoners of war, Japanese Americans and Native Alaskans, and conscientious objectors. In Hawaii, the military imposed martial law. Elsewhere in the Greater United States, enemy forces incarcerated American civilians during and after the capture of American territories.

Around the world in World War II, economies of the countries at war shrank and consumer consumption fell. The US economy was an exception, described as “a glittering consumer’s paradise,” fueled by a massive increase in employment. American consumers, with money in their pockets for the first time since the Depression, went shopping, out to dinner, and to the movies. Even in the face of rationing and material shortages, they bought new clothes, new homes, and more.

Tens of thousands of American women served their country as nurses during World War II. As members of the Army Nurse Corps, Navy Nurse Corps, and Cadet Nurse Corps, they cared for patients in Europe, the Pacific, and on the home front.