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

September 11, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, Kuykendall 410

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 Massie-Kahahawai case – a set of trials in the early 1930s that involved the alleged rape of a white woman and the killing of a Native Hawaiian man. This narrative has been told and retold over the decades to affirm a local identity among the descendants of working-class Native Hawaiians, Asians, and others. In fact, this understanding of the term "local' in the islands dates from this case. In this talk, Professor Rosa will discuss how he researched and wrote the book as a way to explore the culture of historical storytelling in Hawai‘i.

John P. Rosa is assistant professor of history at UH Mānoa. He has previously taught at Loyola Marymount University, Arizona State University, and Kamehameha Schools – Kapālama. If you really must know, he wen' grad in 1986 from Damien Memorial School in Kalihi-Palama – one neighborhood that was featured prominently in the Massie-Kahahawai case.


Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
956-3774, biograph@hawaii.edu, http://www.facebook.com/CBRHawaii

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