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Author Rosa, John P., author

Title Local story : the Massie-Kahahawai case and the culture of history / John P. Rosa
Published Honolulu : University of Hawaii Press, 2014

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Description 1 online resource
Contents Introduction: the Massie-Kahahawai case as a local story -- Local boys: Ahakuelo, Chang, Ida, Kahahawai, and Takai as the accused -- Haole woman: Thalia Massie and the defense of white womanhood -- The killing of Joseph Kahahawai: native Hawaiians and the stories of resistance -- A closing and an opening: the Massie-Fortescue murder trial -- Story, memory, history -- Epilogue: haʻina ʻia mai
Summary The Massie-Kahahawai case of 1931-1932 shook the Territory of Hawai'i to its very core. Thalia Massie, a young Navy wife, alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by "some Hawaiian boys" in Waikīkī. A few days later, five young men stood accused of her rape. Mishandling of evidence and contradictory testimony led to a mistrial, but before a second trial could be convened, one of the accused, Horace Ida, was kidnapped and beaten by a group of Navy men and a second, Joseph Kahahawai, lay dead from a gunshot wound. Thalia's husband, Thomas Massie; her mother, Grace Fortescue; and two Navy men were convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter, despite witnesses who saw them kidnap Kahahawai and the later discovery of his body in Massie's car. Under pressure from Congress and the Navy, territorial governor Lawrence McCully Judd commuted their sentences. After spending only an hour in the governor's office at 'Iolani Palace, the four were set free. Local Story is a close examination of how Native Hawaiians, Asian immigrants, and others responded to challenges posed by the military and federal government during the case's investigation and aftermath. In addition to providing a concise account of events as they unfolded, the book shows how this historical narrative has been told and retold in later decades to affirm a local identity among descendants of working-class Native Hawaiians, Asians, and others--in fact, this understanding of the term "local" in the islands dates from the Massie-Kahahawai case. It looks at the racial and sexual tensions in pre-World War II Hawai'i that kept local men and white women apart and at the uneasy relationship between federal and military officials and territorial administrators. Lastly, it examines the revival of interest in the case in the last few decades: true crime accounts, a fictionalized TV mini-series, and, most recently, a play and a documentary--all spurring the formation of new collective memories about the Massie-Kahahawai case
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Fortescue, Grace, 1883-1979 -- Trials, litigation, etc
Massie, Thomas H. -- Trials, litigation, etc
Massie, Thalia, 1911-1963.
Kahahawai, Joseph, 1909-1932.
SUBJECT Fortescue, Grace, 1883-1979 fast
Kahahawai, Joseph, 1909-1932 fast
Massie, Thalia, 1911-1963 fast
Massie, Thomas H. fast
Subject Trials (Murder) -- Hawaii -- History -- 20th century
Trials (Rape) -- Hawaii -- History -- 20th century
Lynching -- Hawaii -- History -- 20th century
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Criminology.
HISTORY -- United States -- General.
Lynching
Race relations
Trials (Murder)
Trials (Rape)
SUBJECT Hawaii -- Race relations -- History -- 20th century
Hawaii -- History -- 1900-1959. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85059353
Subject Hawaii
Genre/Form History
Trials, litigation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780824840211
0824840216