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“Considering the stakes, the Japanese of Hawaii did surprisingly little to avert the collision and avoid the catastrophe. However, saying this does not blame them. As the following historical account will show, reasons—some compelling, some merely diversionary—existed why they were unwilling or unable to work harder for peace than they did.”
It seems for the most part that Hawaiian Japanese, who kept in touch with relatives in the home country, took pride in Nippon’s overcoming Asians’ second-class role in the world by doing what other major countries did: taking territory in other lands, in this case Manchuria and China, and then working hard to set up a worthwhile society. Hawaiian Japanese seemed anxious to downplay the elsewhere-reported “legendary brutality” of advancing Japanese troops, and instead to focus on positive or even heartwarming stories of how everything later worked out. In this way, they perhaps differed little from many Americans during the Iraq War and occupation, those who have been reluctant to dwell on the brutality of shock-and-awe bombing, Abu Ghraib, and Haditha, but have preferred to focus on how their loved ones are putting themselves in harm’s way trying to help other people.
Hawaii also had special circumstances. As it happened, a sensational rape and murder case in Hawaii, in which anti-Japanese bigotry played a major role, dominated the news from 1931 to 1933, pushing Japan’s initial military advances into Manchuria out of the headlines. Later in the 1930s, speakers from Japan arrived in Hawaii to explain persuasively the Japanese position. Some of what they said seemed to be confirmed by Hawaiian Japanese who went home to visit Japan or Manchuria. The appointment of Henry Pu-yi, from the old Manchurian royal family, as emperor of the new country Manchukuo, convinced many locals that the Japanese were righteous and good occupiers, returning territories conquered to native rule, with Japanese oversight. Some did notice, however, that compared to Hawaii, Japan and Manchuria lacked much freedom of speech or press. One editorialist in late 1938 noted that the open door no longer existed in Japan-occupied China; but he rationalized that the open door to a family dwelling may be “closed decently and respectably,” with those who later “come in peace and goodwill” to transact “legitimate business” given a “key.”