Murder, rape, and martial law: a dual-system of justice for Hawai‘i's Japanese, 1928-1944

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the development of anti-Japanese sentiment in Hawaiʻi from 1928 to 1944, which culminated in the institution of martial law and the internment of nearly 1,500 individuals in Hawaiʻi. It discusses the growing fears of Japan due to its militaristic activities in the Pacific and the perceived threat of Hawaii's Japanese in the event of war. This thesis specifically focuses on two crimes in the pre-World War II period, the Jamieson murder and Massie rape, which sparked ethnic fears among the white elite in the islands and among American military officials. These two groups, who shared similar interests, became aligned with one another to control the Japanese in the islands, first through a dual-system of justice that privileged whites at the expense of minorities and later through martial law. Anti-Japanese sentiment found expression in internment as Japanese internees were under strict military restrictions, arbitrarily punished, and strip-searched in the camps. Analysis of internment in Hawaiʻi as well as its origins and implications not only challenges the dominant assumption that Hawaii's Japanese benefited from an "enlightened" military policy during World War II, but also implicitly questions the usual exclusion of racial conflict-specifically with white elites and military officials-in the history of Hawaii's Japanese.