AFTER you go see the proud battleship Missouri, take a little trip downtown to learn the full story of Hawaii in World War II. Declaration of martial
law in HawaiiThe Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor changed the United States and Hawaii. The surrender of Japanese forces on the deck of the battleship closed the war and ushered in a new world.
Back in Hawaii, the U.S. military took over the territory. To some legal minds, it was a racially motivated miscarriage of justice. Downtown, in Aliiolani Hale, the state Supreme Court building, the Hawaii Judiciary History Center maintains an exhibit of that most frightening and appalling lapse: the declaration of martial law in the Territory of Hawaii.
As federal Magistrate J. Frank McLaughlin said in a 1946 speech: "If what they did here was right, it could be done at any time in any other part of the United States. You may not realize how close to military dictatorship we came.
"Yes, they did it. They did it intentionally. They did it with design aforethought. They did it in knowing disregard of the Constitution. They did it because Hawaii is not a state.
"They did it because they did not have faith that Americanism transcends race, class and creed. So 'they did it' -- with a gun."
The history center carefully explains what happened when the military moved in to Iolani Palace.
Hawaii residents lost the freedom of expression. Mail was censored. The newspapers and radio stations could not operate without a military censor screening all news.
A 1944 history of the Office of War information in Honolulu said that although Hawaii was an American possession it was different.
"It bore all the marks of an occupied country immediately after the outbreak of war in the Pacific, when loyalty of even the Japanese who were American citizens was held in doubt.
"The chief problem was raised by the alien Japanese population," the report said.
"In this vital outpost, populated by so many potential enemies, strict martial law was the logical recourse should war arise."
Citizens of Hawaii were subject to military courts, violations of military rules were dealt with within hours of arrest. Persons found guilty were sometimes sentenced to donate blood to the war drive.
Martial law lasted three years, the longest period of military rule in the history of this nation. The plan to seize Hawaii was drawn up by the military, but it was sponsored by President Franklin Roosevelt, who in 1936 discussed imprisoning Japanese in Hawaii if the islands were attacked.
Historian and author Gwenfread Allen noted how easily we slipped from democracy.
"Some people have called Hawaii's wartime government the only true fascism which has ever existed on American soil," she wrote.
MARTIAL law lasted much longer than needed. Officials trying to rid Hawaii of military control noted at the time that after the Battle of Midway, Hawaii was safe from another attack, but the military would not turn over control.
"They see in its tenacity, long after the original emergency had passed, a warning to the American people never to let a dictatorial government gain a foothold," Allen wrote.
The final lesson to be learned from the period is that the imposition of martial law was eventually declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court and we again came to be governed by laws, not guns.
Richard Borreca reports on Hawaii's politics every Wednesday.
He can be reached by e-mail at rborreca@pixi.com