Asian Settler Colonialism
From Local Governance to the Habits of Everyday Life in Hawaii
Edited by Jonathan Y. Okamura and Candace Fujikane
University of Hawaii Press
Asian Settler Colonialism is a groundbreaking collection that examines the roles of Asians as settlers in Hawai‘i. Contributors from various fields and disciplines investigate aspects of Asian settler colonialism to illustrate its diverse operations and impact on Native Hawaiians. Essays range from analyses of Japanese, Korean, and Filipino settlement to accounts of Asian settler practices in the legislature, the prison industrial complex, and the U.S. military to critiques of Asian settlers’ claims to Hawai‘i in literature and the visual arts.
This book is about Hawai‘i, but it holds profound implications for settler societies everywhere. In these societies, the fundamental social divide is not the color line. It is not ethnicity, minority status, or even class. The primary line is the one distinguishing Natives from settlers—that is, from everyone else. Only the Native is not a settler. Only the Native is truly local. Only the Native will free the Native. The contributors to this landmark volume, Native and settler alike, join to inscribe this irreducible truth with force, clarity, and conviction.
A valuable resource not only for Asian Americans in Hawai‘i but for all scholars and activists grappling with issues of social justice in other ‘settler’ societies, most notably the continental U.S.
When Native Hawaiian activists lash out against Asian settler colonialism, we must remember what Malcolm X said: ‘The conditions that our people suffer are extreme, and an extreme illness cannot be cured with moderate medicine.’ This book takes a candid and necessary look at indigenous views of Asian settlement in Hawai‘i over the past century.
