Hawai'i's U.S. senators want the Department of Interior to study whether Honouliuli or any other internment camps in the state might be eligible for historical site status under the national park system.

More than 1,000 Japanese-Americans were incarcerated in at least eight camps in Hawai'i, said U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawai'i. Honouliuli housed about 300 people of Japanese ancestry, as well as about 100 local residents of German and Italian ancestry.

Inouye cited a study commissioned by the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai'i that suggested Honouliuli as one of two Hawai'i sites most likely to be included on the National Register of Historic Places. The other is at the site of the Kilauea Military Camp in Volcano. Very few traces remain of the other Hawai'i camps.

Legislation introduced by Inouye and co-introduced by fellow Hawai'i Sen. Daniel Akaka, will allow the National Park Service to study the sites "and make recommendations to Congress regarding the best approach to conserve and manage these sites to tell this chapter in our nation's history to current and future generations," said Inouye, who was a member of the famed 442nd Regimental Combat Team and was awarded a Medal of Honor.

Brian Niiya, resource center director for JCCH, said the organization is pleased with the bill, saying that both the center and Honouliuli landowner Monsanto envision a historical center at the 115-acre center site where the public can learn about one of the darker chapters of American history.

Niiya said both parties would prefer that the National Park Service manage the site.

"This legislation is the first step in starting that process," he said.

"Ultimately, if they find it does qualify for park recognition and management, there would have to be further congressional action to adopt that site as a National Park Service," Niiya said. "So it is a long process."

Legislation passed by Congress two years ago authorized a $38 million program aimed at the preservation, education and interpretation of Japanese internment camp sites nationwide.

But only about $1 million has been appropriated for the current year, Niiya said.