Bill Fernandez

Crime & Punishment in Hawaii Bill Fernandez

Rape - Racism - Murder Bootleggers murder Grant Kingsley's fishing companion and later threaten to kill him and his family. Grant vows to find the killers. Is it for revenge or to bring them to justice? Meanwhile, the 1931 Hollywood image of Hawaii as a paradise is shredded when a U. S. Navy wife, Thalia Massie, accuses five local men of gang rape. National news portrays them as depraved, dark, sexual predators. The Navy demands imposition of martial law. The elite, white supremacist oligarchy demands swift justice and the death penalty. Minorities, the locals, fear the future. At school, twelve-year-old Daniel Kingsley is bullied by Japanese and Hawaiian classmates, sons of sugar workers, because they believe his father is a white plantation owner. They resent the poor wages and unhealthy living conditions. Dan works to gain their friendship on the playing field, tries to help them handle the fear of racial violence set loose by the rape case, and urges them to feel loyalty to America despite the power of the whites over the minorities. The jury fails to convict the men. Enraged, the mother, husband, and two navy men seek to force a confession. This leads to a second infamous trial after the police find a body in their car. A volcano of racial hatred erupts when the Caucasians are tried for murder. Clarence Darrow defends them, using the "honor killing" defense. When Grant Kingsley's wife and children are attacked by the bootleggers, his reaction to seek revenge fights against his belief in law. Daniel hears Lt. Massie testify about his wife's rape and thinks of his mother and sister. The police move slowly on the bootlegger case so Grant and a detective try to capture them on their own. Then the news of the murder case verdict and punishment reveals a dark truth: Hawaii is a two-tiered society where whites can get away with murder of the minorities.