File:Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii, Kukui Street and College Walk, Chinatown, Honolulu, HI.jpg

English: Founded in 1906 by Rev. Katsuyoshi Miyao near Aala Park, the shinto shrine of Izumo Taishakyo was located in a temporary building during its early years, before a permanent building was completed in 1922. The shrine thrived and by 1941 had branches in other areas of Honolulu, as well as on Maui and Hawai’i. The shrine was shut down after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, due to suspicions of the loyalties of its Japanese congregation and priest. This led to the priest of the Izumo Taishakyo Mission of Hawaii being interred with his family at an internment camp on the mainland of the United States, returning to Hawaii in 1945 to find that the shrine had been illegally stolen by the City and County of Honolulu in 1942 using the war as justification for the seizure of the property. Between 1946 and 1968, a warehouse in the McCully neighborhood was utilized as the main shrine while a legal battle was underway to get the original shrine back. In 1961, after a lengthy legal battle, the original shrine property was awarded back to the congregation, only to have the property condemned again by urban renewal, with the Federal Housing Administration seeking to redevelop the Aala area on the edge of Chinatown. Thus, in 1963, the shrine building from 1922 was relocated to its present location. In 1968-69, the shrine was restored, and was rededicated in December of 1968. Today, the shrine continues to serve a dedicated congregation, with their history telling a story of perseverance and resilience, but also of the ugly anti-Japanese racism that pervaded the United States in the mid-20th Century.