STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2392

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2678

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Water, Land, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 2678 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HONOULIULI,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $100,000 for fiscal year 2012-2013 to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to preserve and develop the internment camp site in the Honouliuli district.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Historic Hawaii Foundation, Japanese Americans Citizens League, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, and two individuals.

 

     Your Committees find that until recently, little was known about the location of World War II Japanese internment camps in Hawaii, and many people were unaware that any internment camp sites remained in the State.  The Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii began researching these sites over ten years ago in an effort to determine where these camps were located and what, if any, evidence of them remains.  Various archaeological surveys determined the location, significance, historic properties, and area boundary of the Honouliuli site and after conducting an archaeological survey of the former internment camp site, the Honouliuli site was designated on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places in 2009.

 

Your Committees further find that the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii has been working with various organizations including Historic Hawaii Foundation, the University of Hawaii, the State Historic Preservation Division, the National Park Service, and others to identify, preserve, and interpret the Japanese internment camp experience in Hawaii.  Your Committees understand that the National Park Service has awarded grant money to Hawaii-based organizations to fund work to preserve and interpret Japanese internment camp sites throughout the State, these efforts would be expanded with additional leadership and support from the State of Hawaii.  Should the site be designated as part of the National Park System, it will be incumbent upon the State of Hawaii to take an active role in supporting the collection, preservation, and organization of educational resources that will help bring the history of Hawaii's wartime experience to life for residents and visitors.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making clarifying amendments to the purpose section;

 

     (2)  Requiring the Department of Land and Natural Resources to establish a Honouliuli Park Site Project Advisory Group to develop recommendations to leverage county, state, federal, and private funding for an educational resource center at the Honouliuli site;

 

     (3)  Requiring the Advisory Group to work with the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Japanese American Citizens League, University of Hawaii at West-Oahu, historians, and other interested stakeholders, including business, veteran, community, legislative, and other organizations, and to complement the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii's goal of designating the Honouliuli internment-prisoner of war camp site and associated sites within Hawaii as part of the United States National Park Service;

 

     (4)  Requiring the Advisory Group to report to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2013; and

 

     (5)  Depositing the $100,000 general fund appropriation into the Hawaii historic preservation special fund, with the monies to be expended to accelerate the collection, preservation, and organization of resources related to the World War II internment experience in Hawaii.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Water, Land, and Housing that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2678, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2678, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Water, Land, and Housing,

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

 

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair