Red Hawaii: the postwar containment of communists in the Territory of Hawaii

Abstract

This thesis examines the discourse of domestic communism as it developed in Hawaii after World War II. It looks at images of Hawaiian communist party members as presented in the local and national media, in Hollywood films, in court cases, and in government hearings. Specifically, this study focuses on representations of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) during the 1949 dock strike, which resounded with charges of communist influence. It likewise analyzes the notions about communism that emerged in the 1950 hearings of the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) regarding the territory of Hawaii, in the 1952 Warner Brothers film Big Jim McLain, featuring John Wayne as a HUAC investigator sent to Honolulu to break up a communist cell, and in the 1952 trial of the "Hawaii Seven," ultimately convicted of conspiring to advocate the violent overthrow of the United States government. One of the major themes linking these events was their common emphasis on managing the public's perception of the communist menace. In each of these cases, public reaction was key to the success or failure of anticommunists in Hawaii.