Brown Bag Biography with Tom Coffman

March 3, 12:00pm - 1:15pm
Mānoa Campus, Zoom

The Center for Biographical Research presents: / “Inclusion: How Hawaii Protected Japanese Americans from Mass Internment, Transformed Itself, and Changed America” / Tom Coffman, Political Journalist, Author, Filmmaker / Cosponsored by Hamilton Library, the Spark M. Matsunaga Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Hui ʻĀina Pilipili: Native Hawaiian Initiative, the Hawaiʻinuiākea School of Hawaiian Knowledge, and the Departments of History, Ethnic Studies, and Political Science / Thursday, March 3 at 12PM to 1:15PM (HST) on Zoom / Zoom Meeting ID: 969 7952 5765 / Password: 697708 / Meeting link: https://hawaii.zoom.us/j/96979525765 / Following December 7, 1941, the United States government interned 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry evicted from scattered settlements throughout the West Coast states, yet why was a much larger number concentrated in the Hawaiian Islands war zone not similarly incarcerated? Where most histories have shielded President Franklin D. Roosevelt from direct responsibility for the U.S. mainland internment, his relentless demands for a mass removal from Hawai‘i—ultimately thwarted—reveal him as author and actor. In making sense of the disparity between Island and mainland, Inclusion unravels the deep history of the U.S. “sabotage psychosis,” dissecting why many continental Americans still believe Japan succeeded at Pearl Harbor because of the unseen hand of Japanese saboteurs. Contrary to the explanation of hysteria as the cause of the internment, Inclusion documents how a high-level plan of mass removal actually was pitched to Hawai‘i prior to December 7, only to be rejected. / Tom Coffman is a political reporter and author of six books, including Nation Within and Catch a Wave. His widely aired documentaries include First Battle, Arirang, and Ninoy Aquino and the Rise of People Power. He is a three-time recipient of the Hawai‘i Book Publishers Association’s award for nonfiction, and for his cumulative work he received the Hawai‘i Award for Literature.


Event Sponsor
Center for Biographical Research, Mānoa Campus

More Information
Zoë E. Sprott, (808) 956-3774, gabiog@hawaii.edu, https://blog.hawaii.edu/cbrhawaii/

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