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08/20/2025

07/09/2024

Summertime in the concentration camps was scorching hot during WWII, sometimes reaching over 115 degrees. When incarcerees arrived at Poston, the water system was not fully functional and the canals to bring water for agriculture were in the process of construction.

One way incarcerees stayed cool was by building swamp coolers once water became available. Swamp coolers were made by passing air through a wet cloth using an electric fan. Constant water dripping from the water pipe kept the cloth wet; the moistened air provided some cooling for the barracks. However, swamp coolers required a constant stream of water so incarcerees added water pipes to the barrack faucets. Poston concentration camp was able to use the Colorado River as a water supply through the use of water wells that drew water for swamp coolers, trees, and gardens.

In this photo, you can see Michiko Kakuda with children Nancy and Roy at Poston 1 Block 38 Room 2. In the background, you can see stained walls of the barrack from the homemade swamp cooler dripping water. The photo was taken by George Kakuda.

Story and photo courtesy of Roy Kakuda

02/28/2024

Anthurium Asahi

01/17/2024

All lights pio again in Ahuimanu

01/02/2024

A new paper revises (and takes issue with) the previous and much-repeated estimate of 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rexes that roamed our planet.

01/02/2024

On Monday, November 13, 2023, the President signed into law H.R. 366, the “Korean American Vietnam Allies Long Overdue for Relief Act” or the “Korean American VALOR Act." This act extends eligibility for certain VA health care and benefits to specified members of the armed forces of the Republic of Korea.

“Thanks to the Korean American VALOR Act, approximately 3,000 Korean American veterans in Hawaii and across the country will be able to access medical services through the VA,” said Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI).

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/legislation/2023/11/13/press-release-bills-signed-h-r-366-h-r-1226/

01/02/2024

01/02/2024

01/02/2024

LOS ANGELES -- Consider that “top priority” handled for the Dodgers -- and emphatically so. After a fervent sweepstakes, reigning American League Most Valuable Player Shohei Ohtani has agreed to terms with the Dodgers on a record-demolishing 10-year, $700 million deal, according to his agent, Ne...

01/02/2024

The Ireichō holds soil from each of the 75 concentration camps and detention centers, embedded into the front and back covers of the book.

Ceramic artist John Hasegawa used the soil collected from the 75 sites to fuse into two rectangular tiles, one in red and one in white. The colors of the tiles embody two of the five elements, earth and fire.

Hasegawa says that the Ireichō project forever changed how he works and how he views his art, and pottery as a whole. “I’m a potter at heart. I make things that I want people to enjoy drinking out of and eating out of. But now because of this project, I feel like it’s maybe as simple as finding the joy in little moments as you’re creating these pieces,” he said.

The ceramic tiles are inset in the book and when you touch each tile, you are touching soil from every site of incarceration where over 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry were unjustly imprisoned.

Read more about Hasegawa's art: https://www.opb.org/article/2023/12/10/john-hasegawa-uses-pottery-to-explore-asian-american-identity/

Photo by Kazz Morohashi