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Bayonets in Paradise: Martial Law in Hawai‘i during World War II
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About Bayonets In Paradise: Martial Law In Hawai‘i
Product Description Selected as a 2017 CHOICE Outstanding Academic TitleBayonets in Paradise recounts the extraordinary story of how the army imposed rigid and absolute control on the total population of Hawaii during World War II. Declared immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack, martial law was all-inclusive, bringing under army rule every aspect of the Territory of Hawaii's laws and governmental institutions. Even the judiciary was placed under direct subservience to the military authorities. The result was a protracted crisis in civil liberties, as the army subjected more than 400,000 civilians―citizens and alien residents alike―to sweeping, intrusive social and economic regulations and to enforcement of army orders in provost courts with no semblance of due process. In addition, the army enforced special regulations against Hawaii's large population of Japanese ancestry; thousands of Japanese Americans were investigated, hundreds were arrested, and some 2,000 were incarcerated. In marked contrast to the well-known policy of the mass removals on the West Coast, however, Hawaii's policy was one of "selective," albeit preventive, detention.Army rule in Hawaii lasted until late 1944―making it the longest period in which an American civilian population has ever been governed under martial law. The army brass invoked the imperatives of security and "military necessity" to perpetuate its regime of censorship, curfews, forced work assignments, and arbitrary "justice" in the military courts. Broadly accepted at first, these policies led in time to dramatic clashes over the wisdom and constitutionality of martial law, involving the president, his top Cabinet officials, and the military. The authors also provide a rich analysis of the legal challenges to martial law that culminated in Duncan v. Kahanamoku, a remarkable case in which the U.S. Supreme Court finally heard argument on the martial law regime―and ruled in 1946 that provost court justice and the military's usurpation of the civilian government had been illegal.Based largely on archival sources, this comprehensive, authoritative study places the long-neglected and largely unknown history of martial law in Hawaii in the larger context of America's ongoing struggle between the defense of constitutional liberties and the exercise of emergency powers. Review The Scheibers have produced a truly extraordinary book, as monumental in substance and importance as it is massive in length. Clearly a labor of love decades in the making, this massively researched volume is a towering example of outstanding scholarship, yet it is clearly written and organized and easily accessible to all. . . . A truly amazing and outstanding work of scholarship. Essential. ― CHOICE, February 2017 This copiously researched book, which reveals how Hawaii came to fall under martial law after Pearl Harbor and what it did to the lives of residents, is a must-read, not only for Hawaii history buffs, but for anyone who cares about civil liberties and constitutional rights. ― Honolulu Star-Advertiser In Bayonets in Paradise: Martial Law in Hawaiʻi during World War II, an extremely compelling and important book, Harry N. Scheiber and Jane L. Scheiber illustrate how fragile that relationship [between the security of the American people and their constitutional protections] can be. . . . Scheiber and Scheiber demonstrate a keen grasp of the evidence and offer a methodical and compelling analysis. More importantly, they also provide a clear understanding of how complicated the history is. . . . In the end the Constitution won. But the fact that military necessity subordinated it in the first place is a troubling issue that makes Bayonets in Paradise an important scholarly contribution. ― The American Historical Review, 122:3 The Scheibers’ exhaustive research of government documents and manuscript collections allowed them to trace an intriguing and ongoing tug-of-war between military and civilian official
