Experiences in Archaeology, Social Justice, and Democratic Principles

William R Belcher,R Kalani Carriera,Joyce Chinen,Suzanne Falgout,Johanna Fuller

doi:10.1017/aap.2021.23

Abstract

ABSTRACTFrom 2016 to 2019, the University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu conducted archaeological field schools at Honouliuli National Historic Site to teach our students basic archaeological skills. Because the site was the largest Japanese and Japanese American concentration camp on O‘ahu, the field school initiated a program related to social justice and democratic principles for the imprisonment of US citizens and legal residents based on racial and national profiling. The demography of O‘ahu created a special bond to the incarcerees’ stories and the students of Asian and Hawaiian descent. Through field trips, student discussion, and curriculum development, we focused on the pedagogical benefit of experiential learning. Field trips to the National Park Service's World War II Valor in the Pacific Park System on O‘ahu, King Kamehameha V Judiciary History Center, and the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawai‘i allowed the students to see and understand the historical context of the Japanese internment from the mid-nineteenth century, with the development of plantations and early colonialism, to the beginning of World War II and the internment of the more than 300 Japanese and Japanese American—as well as European and Okinawan—civilians and the imprisonment of over 4,000 prisoners of war.

Highlights

From 2016 to 2019, the University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu conducted archaeological field schools at Honouliuli National Historic Site to teach our students basic archaeological skills
Mass incarceration of local Japanese, Japanese Americans, and Okinawan peoples did not occur in Hawai‘i. With their population making up around 40% of the Territory of Hawai‘i and serving as most of the labor for the plantation agricultural systems, a mass incarceration of these people would have devastated the territorial economy
As local residents of Hawai‘i, people of Native Hawaiian ancestry or of Japanese or Okinawan heritage, and family members of individuals who had been incarcerated at the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, the 10 members from seven different academic disciplines each had unique ties to the story of World War II incarceration (Burton 1996)

Summary

Introduction

From 2016 to 2019, the University of Hawai‘i West O‘ahu conducted archaeological field schools at Honouliuli National Historic Site to teach our students basic archaeological skills. World War II is an important “remembered” time in Hawai‘i because even in the current decade, the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese Imperial Navy is a dramatic historic event that marked the US entry into global conflict This event is highlighted within the State of Hawai‘i by a wide variety of historical sites, cultural/military museums and archival collections, and the continued military presence of operational US military bases. After World War II, these reminders created a strong emphasis on social justice, including multiethnic labor movements called “The Democratic Revolution” of 1954 (Nakamura 2020) This social justice milieu continues to shape debates in the state concerning issues that are in the forefront of US national and international concerns, such as taxation, land reform, environmental protection, human/women’s/LGBTQ+ rights, collective bargaining, and comprehensive health insurance, to name a few (Falgout et al 2014)

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Discussion

Conclusion