Category: Hawaii

Honoring Nisei World War II Veterans

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Nisei VetsOn October 5, 2010, President Barack Obama signed legislation to grant the Congressional Gold Medal to the 100th Battalion, the 442nd, and the Military Intelligence Service. The law recognizes more than 6,000 Japanese-Americans born of immigrant parents who served the United States and fought in battles in Europe and Asia during World War II. About two-thirds of them were from Hawai‘i. Read the Honolulu Star-Advertiser article here.

Learn more about Hawai‘i’s famous “Go for Broke” soldiers of the 442nd and 100th with these popular titles from UH Press:

Unlikely LiberatorsUnlikely Liberators: The Men of the 100th and 442nd, by Masayo Umezawa Duus; translated by Peter Duus
“A fascinating and highly readable slice of history which should be told, and told repeatedly. If ever a group of Americans had been driven to the point of despair and rebellion, it was the Americans of Japanese ancestry during World War II. . . . Unlikely Liberators vividly portrays in remarkable realism the officers and men with whom I served. Every American should read Masayo Duus’ book to better understand the true spirit of America which sustains its greatness.” —former U.S. Senator Spark Matsunaga

Combat ChaplainCombat Chaplain: The Personal Story of the WWII Chaplain of the Japanese American 100th Battalion, by Israel A.S. Yost; edited by Monica E. Yost and Michael Markrich
In October 1943, twenty-seven-year-old combat infantry chaplain Israel Yost arrived in Italy with the 100th Battalion, a little-known National Guard unit of mostly Japanese Americans from Hawai‘i. Yost was apprehensive when he learned of his assignment to this unusual unit composed of soldiers with whom he felt he had little in common and who were mostly Buddhists. But this would soon change.

Japanese EyesJapanese Eyes… American Heart: Personal Reflections of Hawaii’s World War II Nisei Soldiers, edited by the Hawaii Nikkei History Editorial Board (distributed for the Tendai Educational Fund)
“It isn’t often that you come across a book that is on the one hand extremely easy to read, enjoyable and inspirational, while on the other hand deeply moving, oftentimes disturbing, and very emotional. Japanese Eyes . . . American Heart is all this and more. . . . The American niseis’ tales create a fascinating literary mosaic, one that is highly educational, highly inspirational, and highly recommended.” —Mainichi Daily News

New Catalog Available: Hawaii & the Pacific 2011

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Hawai‘i & the Pacific 2011
The UH Press Hawai‘i & the Pacific 2011 catalog is now available! To view the 3.4M PDF, click on the catalog cover image to the left. To view and print a 10.2M version, go to our catalogs page: http://uhpress.wordpress.com/latest-catalogs/.

Highlights include:
* A history of surfing compiled by John R. K. Clark and narrated primarily by native Hawaiians who wrote for the Hawaiian-language newspapers of the 1800s (Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions from the Past)
* A illustrated review of environmental concerns in Hawai‘i with an eye toward resolution by focusing on “place-based” management (Living on the Shores of Hawai‘i: Natural Hazards, the Environment, and Our Communities)
* The inaugural volume of the Race and Ethnicity in Hawai`i series (Haoles in Hawai`i)
* An eye-opening look at the relationship between surfing and colonialism in Hawai‘i (Waves of Resistance: Surfing and History in Twentieth-Century Hawai‘i)
* A new anthology of contemporary Polynesian poetry in English, co-edited by Albert Wendt (Mauri Ola: Contemporary Polynesian Poems in English)
* A collection of short stories by Wakako Yamauchi,“ one of the foremothers of Asian American writing” (Rosebud and Other Stories)
* A text that raises key questions about the capacity of pattern across the Pacific to bind and sustain ideas about place, body, and genealogy (Lines That Connect: Rethinking Pattern and Mind in the Pacific)

Talking Hawaii’s Story Readings to Air

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Talking Hawaii's StoryPaired readings from Talking Hawaiʻi’s Story: Oral Histories of an Island People, edited by Michi Kodama-Nishimoto, Warren Nishimoto, and Cynthia A. Oshiro, and Bamboo Ridge Press titles will air as a two-part program on September 7 and 14, at 6:30 pm, on “Aloha Shorts,” KIPO 89.3 FM. The readings were taped live at the fifth annual Hawai‘i Book and Music Festival on May 16, 2010.

The Value of Hawai‘i Events in September

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The Value of Hawaii
The Value of Hawai‘i Contributors on Tourism and Historic Preservation Wednesday, September 2, 7:00 am, AM 940
Tune in to Nā ‘Ōiwi ‘Ōlino on KINE 940 AM to listen to Ramsay Remigius Mahealani Taum and Sara Collins. Rebroadcast at 5 pm, and archived online at http://www.naoiwiolino.com.

The Economy, Tourism, and Agriculture in Hawai‘i
Thursday, September 2, 5:30­-7:00 pm
A “Beatup”/Meetup talk-story with Sumner La Croix, Ramsay Remigius Mahealani Taum, and Charles Reppun at the Civil Beat offices—3465 Waialae Avenue, Suite 200 (the Central Pacific Bank Building). Free and open to the public, but RSVP required—please send an email to beatup@civilbeat.com. See the following link for more information: http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2010/08/24/3758-next-beatup-sept-2-value-of-hawaii-part-2/

The Value of Hawai‘i in the Women’s Studies Colloquium Series
Friday, September 3, 12:30­-2:00
Featuring Mari Matsuda, Meda Chesney-Lind, Kat Brady, and D. Kapua‘ala Sproat.
UH Mānoa campus, Saunders Hall 624; co-sponsored by Departments of Women’s Studies and English.

For the full event schedule, please visit http://thevalueofhawaii.wordpress.com.

Save Big on the Atlas of Hawaii

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Atlas:Third EditionGet the hardcover/cloth edition of the award-winning Atlas of Hawai‘i: Third Edition for more than 30% off while supplies last! This essential reference, edited by Sonia P. Juvik, James O. Juvik, and Thomas R. Paradise, is now $51.99.

“‘Bigger’ and ‘better’ are probably the most appropriate terms to describe the third edition of this atlas. . . . Highly recommended.” —Choice

“If you’re an information junkie and a lover of well-designed books, the new edition of the Atlas of Hawai‘i will excite you as much as it did me. . . . This is a very well-done piece of work—a beautifully illustrated encyclopedia of Hawai‘i contained in a single volume.” —Honolulu Advertiser

“[A] monumental effort to compile into one beautiful volume information on basically almost anything you ever wanted to know about Hawai`i. . . . It belongs in every collection as the core source of information on Hawai‘i.” —Western Association of Map Libraries Information Bulletin

“The Atlas of Hawai‘i . . . should be on the shelf of anyone who is interested in the state of Hawai‘i or the human and physical ecology of a north Pacific island group.” —Yearbook of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers

UH Press Authors Featured on PBS-Hawaii’s Long Story Short

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KawakamiLSSEarlier this month, Barbara Kawakami, author of Japanese Immigrant Clothing in Hawaii, 1885–1941, “talked story” with Leslie Wilcox, the host of PBS-Hawaii’s Long Story Short. For audio and a transcript of the interview, go to http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/longstory_guests/kawakami.htm.

ClarkLSSJohn Clark, whose latest book, Hawaiian Surfing: Traditions from the Past, will be published by UH Press in March 2011, will be the featured guest on August 31. A video clip is available at http://www.pbshawaii.org/ourproductions/longstory_guests/clark.htm.

Race and Citizenship in Hawaii’s Japanese American Consumer Culture

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Creating the Nisei MarketIn 1922 the U.S. Supreme Court declared Japanese immigrants ineligible for American citizenship because they were not “white,” dismissing the plaintiff’s appeal to skin tone. Unable to claim whiteness through naturalization laws, Japanese Americans in Hawai‘i developed their own racial currency to secure a prominent place in the Island’s postwar social hierarchy. Creating the Nisei Market: Race and Citizenship in Hawaii’s Japanese American Consumer Culture, by Shiho Imai, explores how different groups within Japanese American society (in particular the press and merchants) staked a claim to whiteness on the basis of hue and culture. Using Japanese- and English-language sources from the interwar years, it demonstrates how the meaning of whiteness evolved from mere physical distinctions to cultural markers of difference, increasingly articulated in material terms.

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3332-9 / $38.00 (CLOTH)

Inaugural Volume in the Race and Ethnicity in Hawai‘i Series

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Haoles in Hawaii Haoles in Hawai‘i, by Judy Rohrer, strives to make sense of haole (white person/whiteness in Hawai‘i) and “the politics of haole” in current debates about race in Hawai‘i. Recognizing it as a form of American whiteness specific to Hawai‘i, the author argues that haole was forged and reforged over two centuries of colonization and needs to be understood in that context.

“Haoles in Hawai‘i is a terrific book. It handles complex and sensitive issues with knowledge, grace, and sophistication, while at the same time making them accessible to the general reader. Judy Rohrer knows this subject from a lifetime of experience and years of scholarly study. Although it is certain to appear on many college and university reading lists, this is a book that everyone should read. It will make Hawai‘i a better place.” —David E. Stannard, professor of American studies, University of Hawai‘i, and author of Honor Killing: How the Infamous “Massie Affair” Transformed Hawai‘i

August 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3405-0 / $14.99 (PAPER)
Race and Ethnicity in Hawai‘i

Hart Wood Authors Presentation at Reed Space HNL

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Hart WoodDon Hibbard and Glenn Mason, coauthors of Hart Wood: Architectural Regionalism in Hawai‘i, will give a presentation and discuss their work on the book on Tuesday, August 3, at 6:30 pm, at the Waikiki Parc Hotel. Books will be available for purchase and signing after the presentation. Free and open to the public, the talk is part of Interisland Terminal’s Reed Space HNL events. Free validated parking is available for Reed Space attendees.

Victoria Kneubuhl Thinking Out Loud

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Victoria KneubuhlVictoria Kneubuhl, author of Murder Casts a Shadow and Hawai‘i Nei: Island Plays, will be a guest on the Japanese Cultural Center’s Thinking Out Loud: Talking Issues, Taking Action (KZOO-AM 1210), Monday, July 26, 6:30-7:30 pm.

Kneubuhl is a winner of the Hawai‘i Literary Arts Council’s Award for Literature. Her plays have been performed in Hawai‘i and elsewhere in the Pacific, the continental U.S., Britain, and Asia. She is currently the writer and co-producer for the television series Biography Hawaii.

New Book Blog Hosts Updates and Discussion

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The Value of Hawaii
The Value of Hawai‘i Blog is born!

Go to http://thevalueofhawaii.wordpress.com/ for the latest information and to join community discussion events on contemporary Hawai‘i issues.

Coeditors Craig Howes and Jon Osorio will be guests on Hawai‘i Public Radio’s (KIPO 89.3 FM) Town Square, hosted by Beth-Ann Kozlovich, Thursday, July 22, 5-6 pm. They will also be “talking story” on the Japanese Cultural Center’s Thinking Out Loud: Talking Issues, Taking Action (KZOO-AM 1210), Monday, August 30, 6:30-7:30 pm.

Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future

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The Value of Hawaii
How did we get here? Three-and-a-half-day school weeks. Prisoners farmed out to the mainland. Tent camps for the migratory homeless. A blinkered dependence on tourism and the military for virtually all economic activity. The steady degradation of already degraded land. Contempt for anyone employed in education, health, and social service. An almost theological belief in the evil of taxes.

At a time when new leaders will be elected, and new solutions need to be found, the contributors to The Value of Hawai‘i: Knowing the Past, Shaping the Future, edited by Craig Howes and Jon Osorio, outline the causes of our current state and offer points of departure for a Hawai‘i-wide debate on our future.

July 2010 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3529-3 / $19.99 (PAPER)
A Biography Monograph
Published in association with the Center for Biographical Research, University of Hawai‘i

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