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Not until 1940 did the Hawaiian-Japanese community begin to come to grips with their in-between status, that is, Japanese, but residents of a U.S. territory. The dawning came when the U.S. draft began to mobilize for war. But by then it was too late. Conroy ends: “Soon it would be 1941, and time for a Hawaiian-Japanese peace initiative would have run out.”
In 1945 Hilary Conroy would arrive in Tokyo as a young U.S. naval intelligence officer “bringing democracy” as part of the occupation. But only after decades of life and a half century of research would insight reveal the maelstrom into which life had thrown him. The owl of Minerva flies at dusk. In closing, I want to thank three people who made vital contributions in the late stages of preparing this manuscript: Toni Tan at Cambria Press, who believed in the project and handled it skillfully and gracefully; my daughter Allison Hayes-Conroy, who handled the formidable task of preparing the Index; and my longtime friend Sophie Quinn-Judge, who wrote Chapter 11, “From the Pacific War to the Vietnam War.” My father had hoped to continue writing more chapters himself, but the hour became late; Sophie accomplished in a few short strokes the essential links that he wanted to make.
Francis Conroy