After World War I, many men who had gone to fight in the war were returning and desired to take their jobs back from the women and African Americans who had taken them in America; because African Americans and Women had been exposed to the taste of equality in factory jobs and good wages, they […]
World War 1 was not just due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, although this could have been considered the triggering short term cause; it was actually the result of multiple short and long term causes, which stretched back far into the 19th CE. Kaiser Wilhelm II ruled over Germany. However, the whole world […]
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Get startedNational Socialism, commonly called Nazism, German political movement initiated in 1920 with the organization of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, also called the Nazi Party. The movement culminated in the establishment of the Third Reich, the totalitarian German state led by dictator Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. National Socialism emerged from consequences of […]
Post World War 1, Europe was a changing continent. 3 empires crumbled and many grew stronger, but many things stayed the same in Eastern Europe. The inability to address potential issues and not cripple in an economic, political or social way aided those who ultimately sought to exact their revenge is a re-occurring continuity that […]
July 28, 1914, the Great War began. Whether one thinks that the rivalry or the break of trust between two nations were the real cause of the First World War. Historians all over the world believe that there are four main reasons as to why the Great War came to be; militarism, imperialism, nationalism and […]
Europe avoided major wars in the 100 years before World War 1 began. In the 1800’s, the force of nationalism swept across the continent that helped bring about the Great War. Nationalism was the belief that loyalty to a person’s nation and its political and economic goals comes before any other public loyalty.. Nationalism led […]
World War 1 not only changed the lives of soldiers physically but mentally as well. Both on the battlefield and in the trenches soldiers suffered from wounds, starvation, and fatigue. Although history cannot hide the number of people who were killed and wounded, the mental effects of the war are more hidden. Both during and […]
World War I was a devastating war that caused over 16 million deaths worldwide, including over 60,000 Canadian deaths. War experts initially thought World War I would be a short war and last only for a couple months, but it lasted for over 4 years, from 1914 to 1918. It was called “the great war” […]
World War 1 has several different titles whether it be the first war or the great war. It was very helpful to Germany despite their defeat in batter. This is true because the rise of Nazism is directly related to this war for several reasons. According to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM): “In the […]
World War 1 was one ofthe most brutal and tragic wars in the early 1900s which caused a lot of pain and suffering for man. this war occurred in 1914-1918. This war was between European allies.. Both sides were fighting for land. This war had many reasons for occurrence. Militarism, Alliance Systems, and Nationalism were […]
Multiple countries became involved in the fighting of World War 1, though each became involved for vastly different reasons. The fighting originally began when Austria-Hungary began trying to regain their status as a world power and decided to start by taking over Serbia. Austria Hungary had sent in Archduke Franz Ferdinand to tour through Serbia, […]
Some Causes of World War I and Historians’Taboos is a scholarly journal article written by William M. Johnston considering the ‘What if?’ on World War I. He observes the of how Vienna dealt with World War I along with its counterfactuals and how things would be differently if a certain variable were to be altered […]
There were many contributing factors to the ignition of World War One or as it was also known, The Great War. One of the main causes was the Alliance System. The Alliance System was a number of treaties that countries such as Russia, Britain, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary and Italy had signed for protection. These treaties […]
We have been healing since the first time man walked the earth. Dressing injuries, fighting off disease and infection. It has always been human instinct to eliminate our pain. In nature, medicine is evolutionary. It is essential that it adapts and overcomes the maladies that plague this world. But never had medicine taken a larger […]
World War I was known to be “The war to end all wars,” and also labeled as “The Great War.” It began in 1914 and was fueled by militarism and nationalism throughout Europe. Tensions increased within countries due to strained alliances, and competition to usurp land from colonies was setting the scene for a great […]
War has plagued humanity since the beginning of history. Nobody enjoys war, but people have fought others for centuries to defend and hold onto their beliefs. What this shows is that human nature is naturally conducive to war and conflict. As humans are prone to the wills of their environment, they have consistently been forced […]
A war was brewing up in European front where Germany was rising to power once again like World War 1. The United States attempted to refrain from entering a war that did not correspond to them. Although the United States did not physically enter the war when it broke out but instead the United States did offer their help by sending weapons over to Britain. The people from the United States were not fond in entering a war that did not involve them in any way.
It seemed that after World War 1 the war spirits had died down after many lives were lost in order to return peace to the world. The tide changed on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese decided to attack Pearl Harbor, Hawaii where many lives were lost. This not only opened the doors for the United States entry to the war but also on how the world would view the United States after. As well as how Hawaii responded to the changes that it would take on from the start of Pearl Harbor to the end of the war.
To understand why Hawaii became a place where it was neither “home front” nor “war front” we must comprehend why the Japanese decide to attack on the Pacific side instead of striking against Russia which at the time was at a weak point. Although the United States was not involved in the war directly, however the United States kept a close eye on what was going on in Asia especially with China. The United States saw China as a trading center and for cheap labor.
Around 1937 the Japanese had conquered parts of China which caused for the United States to impose embargo on goods that were being sent to China. This enraged the Japanese because some of the material that was exported to China was needed to keep their military running. By the summer of 1939, the Japanese had plans in pushing Russians out of China, but those plans backed fired. Instead it turned into a disaster for the Japanese causing the neutrality pact to be signed between Russia and Japan in 1941.
Before the Russians and Japanese had sign, they neutrality pact the Tripartite Pact was signed on September 27, 1940. This pact was between Germany, Japan and Italy which stated that if any of the three were to be attack by a non-European nation then they would back them up. The only reason for this pact was to pressure the United States in retreating from imposing embargos on the Japanese but in return they got more sanction than before. Upon this happening the Japanese were further angered so created a plan that would end the war with the United States and other European countries. Thus, the Pearl Harbor attack was created which only promoted for the United States to enter the war which would later change the cards in favor for the allies.
Hawaii at the time of the war was a territory of the United States that had a natural harbor that housed most of their military and newest weapon that was created. This was a perfect spot to weaken the United States temporarily. However, this did not affect the United States that much for most of their weapon were not stationed at Pearl Harbor at the time, but it did cause for a culture clash. Along with that it brought many disillusions for most who were courageous enough to wonder outside their comfort zone because the promise of paradise land that Hollywood depicted of Hawaii was nothing to what the actual Hawaii was. The Hawaii that many sailors saw as stated by Bailey and Farber, “‘Believe me if Paradise is anything like this, I’ll take my chances in Hell’” (Bailey and Farber 32). The reason behind this was because Hawaii was a multicultural mix race and contained heavy amounts of prostitution.
The island had a mass diversity of race that the mainland did not have. In the island there were Hawaiians, Japanese, Chinese, Caucasian Portuguese and Puerto Ricans. The percentages of white people were very minimum on the island and the highest percentages was colored people which was uncomfortable for those who were not used to it. For most sailors who entered the island had never seen such interaction in the mainland. In the mainland the colored and white people were separate for the most part as well as had separate sections in the cities where they all lived separated from each other. So, entering a place where everyone enjoyed their freedom to go anywhere, was a shocker for most. This mass diversity caused for a clash between the sailors and the natives of the island.
The Japanese held the most percentage in the population which made it difficult for the Japanese’s living there. The reason for this was that the attack on Pearl Harbor was caused by Japan so most thought the Japanese would betray them at one point. This caused for conflicts to occur among sailors and Japanese. Some Japanese even had to ditch their culture beliefs and their way of dressing to make sure that people would not call them out. For the mainland Japanese were sent to internment camps where their freedom was stripped away from them.
Lauren Kessler states, “In the spring of 1942, 112,000 men, women and children of Japanese ancestry… [were] ‘relocated’” (Kessler 1). Some of this people were American born citizens that were raised with American ideology and had never gone to Japan. Simply for having Japanese blood they were sent off to camps where they lived in the worst conditions ever. For Hawaii, the Japanese who lived there were not stripped from their freedom for the most part because they were needed for the farms or factory work. But for the most part they were discriminated for something they had no part to.
For those who entered Hawaii were sailors around the ages twenty to forty who did not have a family of their own and were willing to fight in a war. Among these groups were also those who were looking for an adventure or trying to escape from the state they were in due to the depression of 1930. Nevertheless, a place called Honolulu was always packed with sailors either in bars, brothels, or movie theaters. Even though the island was under martial law the sailor was separated from the downtown area, shopping center, and residential areas. These was to create less conflict between the natives and the sailors. Which meant that the sailors had to waste their money in order to have an adventure but too most it was expensive to even wonder out of the camp. Most sailors would stay behind and gamble or play a pick-up game in Waikiki Bars. These pick-up games consisted of them sometimes having sex with each other, but it was not considered to being homosexual. The reason behind this was that the women population was very low.
This is where prostitution comes into the picture and having a great influence on how life was in Hawaii during the remaining of the war. There was a district where brothels were located, and it was called Hotel Street. This was the place where the men got their three minutes of satisfaction for only three dollars. Even though prostitution was forbidden for the most part in the United States and strict laws prevented anyone from doing it. For Hawaii, these laws were avoided such as the May Act of 1941 was not enforced. Why would this law and many other be avoid was because the people of the island and the military thought it was the best way for the soldiers to take out their urges in this brothel then raping young women. Not only that but the rates of venereal diseases were low.
It seemed that these was not only the reason for prostitution to remain open in Hawaii because great amounts of money were behind this industry. As Jean O’Hara would soon find out that the chief of police whose name was William Gabrielson who controlled what brothel would remain open or close. The purpose for this because the madams would pay a quota to Gabrielson to remain open as well as they had to remain on the good side of him. For Jean O’Hara she happened to land on the wrong side of Gabrielson. It went to a point where she was even beaten to near death by him for not following the rules.
These rules consisted as Bailey and Farber highlight, “…may not visit Waikiki Beach, patronize any bars or better class cafes, own property or an automobile, have a steady ‘boyfriend’, marry service personnel, attend dances, ride in the front of a taxicab or with a man in the back seat, wire money to the mainland, telephone the mainland without permission if the Madame, [and] be out of the brothel after 10:30 at night” (Bailey and Farber 109). This oppressed the rights of these women’s which Jean O’Hara could not stand which caused for her to rebel against these rules for a better treatment for all these women in this business.
The women of the brothels were not the only ones that suffered through hardships but also African Americans. They seemed to be fighting a double war outside from home and at home. As Bailey and Farber emphasized, “‘It’s awful hard for one to concentrate all his efforts towards the war when he has such a great battle to fight at home. Yet they tell us we are fighting for freedom, maybe I am too young to understand’” (Bailey and Farber 138-139). Many African Americans were not drafted out of the mainland because the government did not want them to get a taste of freedom and start a revolution at home. Those who were drafted were separated from the white people and given jobs like common laborers or a cooking chef.
The jobs were always lower ranking and jobs that they would never be able to scale up the chain. This led for some African Americans like John Hope Franklin to start to not enlist in the army which was not something that the government wanted. In the end they had to compromise with them, but it still was not enough for them. For those African Americans who entered Hawaii still saw discrimination but they also saw freedom do to seeing all these colored people walking freely without having to worry about not being allowed in. Even though “approximately 200 [African Americans] lived on the islands” (Bailey and Farber 2) they still did not feel left out.
All these interactions between various cultures and races bought conflicts among each other on the island but in the end, they were still united for one cause. The cause being war that the United States was entering to revenge the lives that were taking do to Pearl Harbor. Everyone took their part in showing their support and it did not matter if you were a soldier preparing to go to war or a prostitute helping a soldier to enjoy themselves with little time, they had on the island they all did their part. Along with this also brought up inequality among many races and genders who did not have the same right as others which only led for future movements to evolve from this conflict.
Hawaii for the most part was the middle piece of the war in the pacific where the enemy would advance as well as the United States would push them back. In the end Hawaii was not a “home front” nor a “war front instead it was a “place of waiting” (Bailey and Farber 31). A place where most feared of being taken under the control of the Japanese and having to go under harsh ruling. To a place where the sailors and soldiers would have the last chance to enjoy their last taste of life before they were shipped off to war where, they either came back or died.
