Remembrance Awakened: Speaker Series

Overview

These free, virtual events that comprise our speaker series are sponsored and hosted by our partner, Pacific Historic Parks, which allows researchers and experts in their field to present on a topic related to Honouliuli National Historic Site's history.

The Speaker Series began during Honouliuli National Historic Site's 10th Anniversary Celebration in 2025 through Hidden Histories and continue this year to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the camp's closure.

All are welcome to join these events and learn something new about the park from the people who have dedicated their lives to uncover this important history.

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Ellen Carson: Americans of Japanese Ancestry Resistance, Redress, and Constitutional Repair

Former President of the Hawai‘i State Bar Association

June 16, 5:30-6:30pm HST
Link to register

Discussion Summary: Ellen's talk will focus on legal challenges to the wartime injustices that sought to protect the constitutional rights of Americans of Japanese ancestry (AJA) during the wartime, and subsequent legal efforts to obtain apology, compensation, and recognition of the severe injustices inflicted on this community.

Biography: In the 1980s, Ellen Godbey Carson represented Japanese Americans in a class action lawsuit that went to the United States Supreme Court, seeking redress for the massive deprivations of constitutional rights of these Americans during World War II. She has spoken throughout the country about these injustices and the importance of protecting constitutional rights.

Ellen has been a leader in the Hawaii legal community, serving as President of the Hawaii State Bar Association, Hawaii Women Lawyers, IHS/the Institute of Human Services), and other community organizations. She has received numerous awards, including being the recipient of one of the American Bar Association's highest awards, the Margaret Brent Award for Women Lawyers of Achievement, awarded to only five lawyers in the nation each year. Now in retirement, she enjoys doing community advocacy and participating in local cultural activities, including bon dancing.

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Delphine Hirasuna: The Art of Gaman

Author of "The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese Internment Camps, 1942-1946"

July 16, 5:30-6:30pm HST
Link to Register

Discussion Summary: Led by Delphine Hirasuna, author of the book "The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946", this presentation will cover how the camps came to be and showcase the different materials used for the intricate pieces of art crafted by those imprisoned.

Biography: Delphine Hirasuna is the author of over a dozen books, including "The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946", which became a traveling exhibition shown at 10 museums across the U.S, including the Smithsonian's Renwick Gallery in Washington D.C. and the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe. NHK Broadcasting also sponsored a five-city tour of “The Art of Gaman” exhibition in Japan, with Delphine as organizer and curator. The exhibition was seen by special request by the Emperor and Empress of Japan. For more than 25 years, Delphine also wrote a weekly feature column for the two largest Japanese American newspapers in the U.S. and co-authored the Japanese cookbook, “Flavors of Japan.” She was named a laureate of the San Francisco Public Library in 2002. Her latest book “Broad Stripes Bright Stars,” co-authored with designer Kit Hinrichs and photographer Terry Heffernan, will be released by bookstores in December, in time for America’s 250^th anniversary.

She is a sansei (third generation) whose family was interned in Jerome and Rohwer, Arkansas, during the war. Her father, who was born in Hawaii, served with the 442nd 100th in Italy. He was drafted from the camps, even though he was 38 years old and had two children.

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Architecture

Date TBD
Link to Register Coming Soon

Discussion Summary: Uncover how the power of architecture and design contributed to the oppression experienced by incarcerated peoples during WWII.

 

Lorraine Minatoishi

President, CEO of AEPAC Architecture and Engineering

Date TBD, time TBD
Link to register

Biography: Lorraine Minatoishi, Ph.D., AIA, is the founder and owner of AEPAC and an SOI Qualified Historic Architect with over two decades of professional experience. She holds a Doctorate of Engineering from the renowned Waseda University. Under her leadership, AEPAC has grown into a full service Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firm recognized for its high-quality standards across
all project disciplines.

Dr. Minatoishi has guided numerous federal and private historic preservation efforts, applying her understanding of federal processes, code compliance, and complex rehabilitation to ensure successful
project outcomes. Her recent work includes leading cultural resource protection during the FEMA Maui Wildfire Cleanup Efforts. She has earned multiple awards for preservation and rehabilitation projects in Honolulu, such as The Royal Hawaiian Hotel & Sheraton Waikiki Master Plan and the Rehabilitation of Building 9 at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard. In addition to her professional accomplishments, she served as the 2024 Chair of the AIA National Historic Resources Committee, further solidifying her leadership
within the field of historic preservation.

Dr. Minatoishi has had the pleasure of working with NPS over the years, including via the NPS JACS Grant. AEPAC completed an Historic Structures Analysis Report for the two remaining buildings within the Honouliuli Internment Camp National Historic Park with historically accurate construction documents based on 1943 U.S. Army Corps standards. AEPAC also worked with the Hawai‘i Plantation Village on an interactive Honouliuli’s Japanese Internment Camp exhibit to share its history and the internee's personal stories to the children and people of Hawaii.

 

Anoma Pieris

Professor of Architecture and Associate Dean, Research, University of Melbourne

Biography: Anoma Pieris is Professor of Architecture and Associate Dean Research at the University of Melbourne. Her recent books include the multi-authored Immigrant Industry: Building Postwar Australia (Berghahn 2024) and with Lynne Horiuchi, The Architecture of Confinement: incarceration camps of the Pacific War (Cambridge University Press 2022). Her most recent work is on war graves cemeteries in the Pacific.

 

Lynne Horiuchi

Scholar, Author

Biography: Lynne Horiuchi is an independent scholar who received her Ph.D. in 2005 from the University of California at Santa Barbara. She has published numerous articles on the built environments of Japanese American incarceration. Race, space, architecture and ethics are her theoretical interests crossing over into Asian American studies, art history, vernacular architecture, urban planning, and critical race studies. She has co-edited a volume with Tanu Sankalia Urban Reinventions: San Francisco’s Treasure Island that examines the complete transformations of a man-made island for a world exposition, a military base and a new neighborhood in San Francisco. She is co-writing with Anoma Pieris a volume on imprisonment during World War II from Singapore to North America, The Architecture of Confinement: Incarceration Camps of the Pacific War. She is completing a volume, Dislocations and Relocations: The Planning, Design, and Construction of Prison Cities, that interrogates the relationships between architecture, and vernacular building and military design and construction. She has taught at the University of North Carolina in the Department or Architecture and she has been engaged by the Future Histories Lab at the University of California at Berkeley to teach on race and redevelopment drawing from her decades of community activist work in West Oakland. She has served on the Board of the Rosie of the Riveter Trust and numerous other community organizations and committees. She is a long-time member of SAH, participating in conferences, panels and roundtables and is currently the Co-Chair of the SAH Minority Scholars Affiliate. She was honored as an SAH Fellow, class of 2021.

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Museum Collections

Date TBD
Link to Register Coming Soon

Discussion Summary: How are artifacts still telling incarceration stories decades later? Learn from the keepers of history - the collections managers, archivists, and curators helping to interpret the history of incarceration sites across the United States.

 

Mikael Fox

Museum Technician, Pearl Harbor National Memorial

Biography: Mikael Fox is the museum technician for Honouliuli National Historic Site. In this capacity, he prioritizes preservation in collaboration with community members. Fox built the site's museum collection from the ground up, ensuring a focus on both archaeological evidence and contemporary materials created within the community that emphasize Honouliuli as a place of living history in 2026. Fox earned two Bachelor of Arts degrees at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in History and Journalism, followed by a Master of Arts in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2022.

 

Jamie Hendricks

Archivist, Japanese American National Museum

Biography: Jamie Henricks is the Archivist in the Collections Management & Access department of the Japanese American National Museum. She is responsible for managing the National Museum’s archival holdings, including those in the permanent collections and institutional archives. Her work includes processing collections, providing access to collections and assisting researchers, and supervising interns and volunteers working with collection materials. Prior to joining the National Museum, she was a Project Archivist at Pepperdine University, and an Archives Assistant at UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial Library. She holds a Master of Library and Information Science degree with a specialization in Archival Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas Christian University.

 

Rachyl Soloai

Collections Manager, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center

Biography: Rachyl Soloai is the Collections Manager at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, where she brings her deep commitment to preservation and storytelling to the care and management of the Center’s historical collections.

Rachyl earned her undergraduate degree in Technical Writing from Brigham Young University–Idaho, where she received an award for academic excellence. Her early professional experience is rooted in librarianship, she served as a Reference Librarian at the Campbell County Public Library in Gillette, Wyoming, and as a Young Adult Librarian. These roles nurtured her passion for connecting people with information, stories, and resources that deepen understanding and spark curiosity.

She went on to earn a dual Master’s degree in Library and Information Science and Archival Studies from Louisiana State University, graduating at the top of her class. Her academic and professional background equipped her with a strong foundation in archival theory, information organization, and preservation practices. She now applies these skills to safeguard the artifacts and personal histories entrusted to the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center.

Rachyl began volunteering at the Heart Mountain Interpretive Center in June 2025 alongside the previous Collections Manager. She was inspired by the Center's mission to preserve and share the experiences of those incarcerated at Heart Mountain during World War II. Today she works to ensure the historic museum collection is properly preserved for generations to come.

Outside of her professional work, Rachyl enjoys traveling, reading, and spending time with her family and her cats. She is passionate about the power of history to connect generations and is deeply committed to preserving the voices and memories that shape our collective past.

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Technology

Date TBD
Link to Register Coming Soon

Discussion Summary: Learn more about how different, modern technologies intersect to tell the incarceration story through virtual reality, modelling, and maps.

 

Brian Niiya

Content Director, Densho; Editor, Densho Encyclopedia

Biography: Brian Niiya is a public historian specializing in Japanese American history. Currently the content director for Densho and editor of the online Densho Encyclopedia, he has also held various positions with the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the Japanese American National Museum, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i that have involved managing collections, curating exhibitions, and developing public programs, and producing videos, books, and websites. His writings have been published in a wide range of academic, popular, and web-based publications, and he is frequently asked to give presentations or interviews on the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

 

Jim Casey

Principal GIS Specialist, University of Denver Amache Community Archaeology Project

Biography: Jim Casey has served as the principal GIS specialist supporting Amache National Historic Site since 2010 as part of the University of Denver Amache Community Archaeology Project. He joined the project while completing a master’s degree in Geographic Information Science at the University of Denver and brings a unique perspective shaped by four years living and working in Japan, where he developed a lasting connection to Japanese culture and language. His work has included developing the project’s GIS infrastructure, searchable Amache online map, drone imagery, data collection and online maps that support archaeological research and public engagement. A Denver native and strong supporter of the Japanese American community, Jim continues to collaborate on emerging technologies such as augmented reality and 3D modeling while supporting the Amache community, DU students and ongoing research related to Amache.

 

Kari Noe

Lab Director, University of Hawai‘i Create (X) Lab

Biography: Dr. Kari Noe is the Director of the Center for Indigenous Innovation in Data and Emerging Technology (CII-DET) at the UH System Office of Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation (OIKI), and currently oversees the Create(x) emerging media lab at the University of Hawai’i at West O’ahu (UHWO), engaging with community-centered and place-based data, emerging technology research, workforce programs, and strategic initiatives. She holds a PhD in Computer Science, and her administrative roles are closely aligned with her research in human-computer interaction (HCI) and immersive technologies, where she focuses on how interactive and immersive applications can provide accessibility to place, knowledge, and learning.