COURTESY OF TOM COFFMAN
"The First Battle" uses old photos, historic footage and actorly recreations to tell the story of Hawaii's Japanese-American population in World War II.
|
|
Isle council helped AJAs as war loomed
"The First Battle"
8 p.m. today on KHET/PBS
IT'S always a sign that a documentary is doing its job when you leave it with questions previously unthought of. While viewing Tom Coffman's extraordinary "The First Battle" I wondered, for the first time, if martial law had actually been a good thing for Hawaii. That's certainly outside the box of wisdom that has been so conventional for so long that it has become dogma.
In the restless days before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor, Honolulu citizens of all ethnic types began to quietly organize to combat the racism they saw looming on the horizon, a racial hatred that would be exacerbated by war with a non-white enemy. The "Council for Inter-Racial Unity" included writer Shigeo Yoshida, YMCA honcho Hung Wai Ching and Honolulu Police Department officer John A. Burns. All had a vision of a world in which the races were good neighbors, and they were advised in their endeavor by University of Hawaii regent Charles Hemenway, whose experiences in teaching students of all races -- and both genders -- had convinced him the only thing that really separated human beings was ability and ambition.
And so, when the FBI assigned agent Robert Shivers to Honolulu in 1939 to get a handle on the "Japanese problem," the council went to work on him. And also on Gen. Delos Emmons, assigned as military commander over the islands when martial law was declared. In short order, these two people -- who basically held the fate of Hawaii's Japanese-American population in their hands -- got to know AJAs on a personal basis. Neither held a brief against Japanese-Americans, but these men also were professional agents of the federal government, and they followed orders.
Here's where the film gets interesting. Despite official orders from the chain of command reaching back to Washington to arrest, confine or deport Japanese-Americans in Hawaii, both Shivers and Emmons ignored the commands, or delayed or worked around them. They placed their reputations and careers on the line. They even recruited Eleanor Roosevelt to their side, and became a voice of reason in a time when there was a rush to judgment -- and it was largely through the quiet efforts of the Council for Inter-Racial Unity. Sometimes lobbying government officials pays off, instead of being a payoff.
It's a fascinating, largely untold story, and Coffman's film -- certainly his most polished to date -- uses historic footage, actorly recreations and visual documentation to tell it in a linear, comprehensive manner, so much so that you want to know more.
Which brings us back to the martial-law question. The imposition of martial law supposedly places government authority in the hands of people who are beyond the influence of politics. Was it possible that Shivers and Emmons could not have shielded Hawaii's Japanese-American population as well as they did if they hadn't been vested with so much authority?
Alas, the film doesn't address this, but it does make one boggle at the idea of a military commander doing so today. They'd be Shinseki'd right out of there.
"The First Battle" ought to be required viewing for some folks, and the White House would be a good place to start.