During a special obon service held at the former Honouliuli internment site in Kunia, the Rev. Shuji Komagata chanted and gently tapped a wooden drumstick on an aged taiko drum, the same drum his great-grandfather Bishop Zenkyo Komagata used exactly 73 years earlier to officiate an obon service at the camp where he and hundreds of other internees were unjustly confined.

The drum was the significant central piece of Tuesday’s service as a professor discovered it six months ago at a Buddhist temple in Nuuanu with an inscription long forgotten. In Japanese it said, “Prayer at the obon service, on August 15, 1944, at Honouliuli Confinement Camp.”

Bishop Chishin Hirai of the Nichiren Mission of Hawaii, the temple where the drum was discovered, reached out to the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii to seek its assistance in holding an obon service to honor the internees.

More than 20 people, including nine Buddhist ministers, attended Tuesday’s service on the concrete foundation where the Honouliuli mess hall once stood.

Bishop Shugen Komagata, 73, grandson of Bishop Zenkyo Komagata of the Soto Mission of Hawaii, officiated with his son, Shuji, 42, to honor the hundreds of internees of Japanese ancestry who were confined there starting in March 1943.

During the service, attendees offered incense, candlelight and prayers and scattered red and white rose petals on the grounds. Les Goto, a member of the Nichiren Mission, said, “Today we will hear the voice of the Honouliuli taiko. We will listen to its message. How will we respond?”

Community leaders hope to make the obon service at Honouliuli with the historic taiko drum an annual event.

During the service the elder Komagata said he felt the spirits of the internees and said they were happy with their presence to honor them and offer prayers of peace.

“And that’s what we really want in this world: peace.”

Komagata’s grandfather was confined at the site for two years during World War II.

The taiko drum, believed to be about a century old, was discovered by professor Naofumi Annaka of Rissho University in Tokyo while he was doing research on the temple. In a storage room he discovered the drum that was donated to the temple in 1921 by Masao Sakamoto.

Although Hirai was aware of the drum’s existence, Annaka pointed out an inscription on the bottom of the drum that he had never seen. The writing indicated an obon service was held Aug. 15, 1944.

It was unclear under what circumstances the drum got from the mission to the camp. But the discovery confirmed for the first time that religious activities were held at Honouliuli at a time when Buddhist temples in Hawaii were ordered to close during the war.

Also written on the drum is Bishop Zenkyo Komagata’s first name and the names of three other internees that include the late music teacher Harry Urata.

Excited by the discovery, Hirai alerted Goto, who is also a volunteer at the Japanese Cultural Center.

“Oh my gosh, to actually touch something like that, I started getting chicken skin,” Goto recalled.

At Tuesday’s service Carole Hayashino, president and executive director of JCCH, said that although the drum reminded her of the personal injustice against detainees, the historic piece “represents the resilient spirit of those who were interned at Honouliuli.”

She added, “Its re-emergence and return to Honouliuli today gives us the opportunity to honor the spirits of those who were interned here and, as well, as President Obama said when he recognized Honouliuli as a national monument, today also helps to remind all of us about the critical importance of safeguarding civil liberties and maintaining our values in times of crisis.”

Obama designated Honouliuli as a national monument in 2015. During the service Hirai said, “Honouliuli may have more meaning now than when it was designated.”

Located in a dry, remote gulch, the internment camp was surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards during the war.

As Shuji Komagata gently struck the taiko drum in single, steady strokes during the service, he said there was an “unusual feeling” to the sound of the drum amid the silence of the gulch. “And it kind of just took me back to perhaps what it might have been like many years ago and the sense of loneliness and struggle here,” he said.

As the service came to a close, Hirai said, “I am totally horrified when I imagine how they lived here without a clear future. Although obon service was mainly for deceased family, I am sure that it also eased the pain of the internees.”

Because of the hardships they endured, “That is why we can enjoy our freedom and peace today,” he added. “We should never forget this.

“The U.S. should never forget this significant lesson learned through the precious sacrifices. We all know that people with specific faith have become targets of discrimination recently,” Hirai continued. “Innocent people may be victimized. It means that the big mistake that happened here 74 years ago may happen again. If we don’t have sincere reflection on our sad history, we (could) be internees here again.”