Edna Saifuku was 15 when she saw the towers with guards bearing machine guns at the Hono­uli­uli Internment Camp in Kunia, where she and her siblings visited their father, Sam Nishi­mura.

Nishimura, a tailor shop owner, was detained at the internment site with hundreds of other Japa­nese-Americans during World War II.

On a cloudy afternoon recently at her home tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac in Wahiawa, Saifuku, 86, talked about the injustice by the federal government against her father and other internees. "I thought we were protected by the Constitution. We are Americans," she said. "Nobody should’ve been taken to the internment camps."

This month marks the 70th anniversary of the opening of Hono­uli­uli, the largest of the 13 internment sites in Hawaii during the war. The Nishi­muras are one of the families featured in the Japa­nese Cultural Center of Hawaii documentary "The Untold Story: Internment of Japa­nese Americans in Hawaii."

One day in April 1942, an FBI agent took Sam Nishi­mura, a nisei born and raised in Hale­iwa, to the immigration station in Hono­lulu. He was taken from his Hale­iwa home for questioning about a truck that was sent to the Japan Red Cross, according to information gathered for an Ethnic Studies Oral History Project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Nishimura told investigators that he believed the truck was going to be used to help people, as would have been the case with the American Red Cross. Despite being an American citizen, he was detained at the Sand Island detention camp and later transferred to Hono­uli­uli, according to information from the oral history project.

During his internment, Nishi­mura worked as the camp tailor, altering coats for internees, including those of German and Italian descent, and uniforms for guards.

Saifuku recalled the hardship their soft-spoken mother, Hisae, endured to support six children while their father was interned for 21⁄2 years. "She took care of all of us," she said.

Their grandfather Kei­taro Nishi­mura stepped in to help tend to the children as their mother worked nonstop at the family’s tailor shop in Hale­iwa.

Saifuku leafed through an old box filled with letters and birthday cards that she and her siblings sent to their father while he was confined. Nishi­mura saved all the letters written by them and his wife.

Among the letters Saifuku shared with the Star-Advertiser was one her mother wrote to Lt. Gen. Robert Richardson Jr., military governor of the Territory of Hawaii, in September 1943 requesting her husband be released from internment.

A necklace her father made for her from shells collected while at Sand Island, and colorful rings he created out of toothbrush handles at Hono­uli­uli, also were some of the items she shared. According to the oral history project, internees created and molded the rings from toothbrush handles using a hacksaw, hot water, a round pole and sandpaper.

Nishimura was released from Hono­uli­uli before the end of the war after he signed documents stating he wouldn’t sue the government.

He didn’t talk about his experience at the internment camp with his children. It was only when his granddaughter Sandi Chang — who was working on an assignment for her ethnic studies class at the University of Hawaii — asked him if he could tell her what happened at Hono­uli­uli that he agreed to talk about it.

Chang said her grandfather in his own way did hold resentment against the federal government but didn’t show it. "When I was interviewing him, that’s kind of when it came out," she said.

Saifuku, Chang’s mother, said, "We didn’t know that he was angry."

She said people need to know what happened so history doesn’t repeat itself. "Something like that shouldn’t happen again."

Nishimura’s oral history interview conducted by Perry Naka­yama appeared in a collection called "Waia­lua and Hale­iwa: The People Tell Their Story." The interview occurred in 1976, a year before Nishi­mura died. He was 71.

Efforts are being made to ensure the history of Hono­uli­uli is not forgotten.

The National Park Service is working on a study of 13 Japa­nese internment sites in Hawaii. The process started two years ago when the park service held public meetings to gather information and recommendations.

Paul DePrey, superintendent of the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument, said the goal of the study is to determine the significance of the internment sites on a national level and how best to preserve them. DePrey said he hopes the final draft of the study will be ready this summer for public review.

In the state Legislature, House Bill 1396 would appropriate funds for the planning, design and construction of the Hono­uli­uli Internment Camp Education Center and Nisei Veterans Legacy Center.

At UH-West Oahu an archaeology course is offered to students that involves work conducted at Hono­uli­uli. Also, a team of researchers is putting together a journal focusing on the internment camp, said Suzanne Falgout, anthropology professor at UH-West Oahu. The journal is expected to be available to the public by year’s end.

"The story of the WWII Hono­uli­uli Camp reminds us of the truly global reach and complexities of that war. And, it highlights some of the significant challenges to our important principles of democracy and social justice in times of conflict. World War II internment and imprisonment impacted a wide diversity of people in Hawaii, and the lessons it holds are important ones to remember today. In that sense, Hono­uli­uli is everybody’s story," Falgout said in an email.

Later this year marks the 25th anniversary of the Civil Liberties Act, signed in August 1988 by President Ronald Rea­gan, that acknowledged the federal government’s unjust actions against Japa­nese-Americans during World War II. Each surviving internee received a formal apology and $20,000 in restitution, according to the Japa­nese American National Museum website.

Norman Osumi’s father, the late Rev. Paul Osumi, was one of the former internees who received reparations from the federal government. His father was detained a day after the Pearl Harbor attack.

"My father never understood why he was picked up. He didn’t believe he did anything wrong against the United States. He did right by the government," said Osumi, 71, of Nuuanu, who is also featured in the documentary.

Osumi’s father was born in Hiro­shima and raised in Hawaii. He was confined at Sand Island before he was transported to a mainland internment camp.

While at Gila River Relocation Center, an internment site in Arizona, Osumi became gravely ill with pleurisy, an inflammation of the membrane that surrounds the lungs. Osumi’s mother, Janet, left their Hono­lulu home with her two sons and moved into the internment camp to care for her husband. His health later improved.

Norman Osumi was a toddler when they moved to the internment camp.

They stayed there until the end of the war and lived on the mainland for a while before returning to Hawaii in 1946. Norman Osumi said when his father received the apology and restitution, he never spoke about it.

He believes his father didn’t hold any resentment against the federal government. "He didn’t show it or state it," Osumi said.