Location

Fifty years before the Japanese attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in 1941, the Japanese sent warships to Honolulu to oppose the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands by the United States during the Spanish-American War. As early as 1897, the strategic importance of Hawaii to the defense of the west coast was recognized. When Japan began pushing for voting rights for its nationals living and working on the islands, tensions rose between the two countries. Professor William Michael Morgan discusses his book Pacific Gibralter, and the results of the Japan-U.S. crisis of 1897. A book signing will follow the program.