Local Story: The Massie-Kahahawai Case and the Culture of History

The Massie-Kahahawai case of 19311932 shook the Territory of Hawaii to its very core. Thalia Massie, a young Navy wife, alleged that she had been kidnapped and raped by some Hawaiian boys in Waik?k?. 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. Thalias husband, Thomas Massie; her mother, Grace Fortescue; and two Navy men were convicted of manslaughter despite witnesses who saw them kidnap Kahahawai and the later dis- covery of Kahahawais body in Massies car. Under pressure from Congress and the Navy, territorial governor Lawrence McCully Judd commuted their sentences. After spending only an hour in the governors 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 cases 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 othersin fact, this understanding of the term local in the islands dates from the Massie-Kahahawai case.

The Massie-Kahahawai case revealed racial and sexual tensions in preWorld War II Hawaii that kept local men and white women apart. And this tension coexisted with the uneasy relationship between federal and military officials and territorial administrators. See more