Replicating Settler-Colonial Sacred Space on Stolen Land: The Byodo-In Temple in Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi

Abstract

This paper examines the role of replicated settler-colonial structures on unceded land using the Byodo-In Temple in Hawaiʻi as a case study. In the late 19th Century, contract laborers emigrated from Japan to work on plantations in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. These immigrants faced decades of mistreatment and discrimination, with the Caucasian elite often characterizing Buddhist religious beliefs as antithetical to American Christian values. These anti-Japanese sentiments came to a head after the Pearl Harbor attack when the United States government incarcerated a vast number of Japanese immigrants and their Japanese-American children under suspicion of treason based on their race. After the Allied victory and the United States’ engagement in the Cold War, the government sought to promote an image of America as a champion of racial unity to deflect criticism from its imperialist policies. During this era, an American corporation built the Byodo-In Temple replica as part of a larger development project in Hawaiʻi. Using data from archives, interviews, and site visits, this study demonstrates the Byodo-In Temple’s involvement in settler-colonial industries that erase native (hi)stories, alienate the Indigenous population from their land, and support imperialist narratives circulated by and for the United States. This paper further argues that the Byodo-In Temple’s superficial connection to the local Japanese community and the dissimulated corporate greed that drives the temple’s existence complicate its authenticity as a Japanese sacred space. Finally, it calls for a decolonial reinterpretation of the site that would reaffirm native meanings of space while making apparent the temple’s settler-colonial history.