Judge (ret.) Jim Burns

Well that's where he grew up, in Kalihi, Rose and Meyers, right next to the Kupau's, In the old days, I mean that's where the local folks lived. It was all kinds of people, mixed races, and he grew up in that environment, plus he went to St. Louis, which in those days was very mixed, but it was basically to train people to work for the big companies in Hawaii.  Prior to the war he was Chief of Espionage for the police department, so he was very involved with the preparation for the war, and how the local people were treated, and he got to see where the two class society that Hawaii had during the war.

The normal ordinary person didn't have much choice, they controlled the police department, they controlled the banks, they controlled everything that went on. You had very limited opportunities, I mean you just didn't have equal rights with everybody else, so they essentially had total control over you, and if you got out of the boundaries of where they wanted you to be, you suffered, you just couldn't get out of... you didn't have equal rights and you didn't really have equal opportunity, because they controlled everything.  And think of it, that man was the captain of the police department, and although he wasn't totally favored by the establishment, they knew he was a good cop and he could have gone for a career.  He quit the police department, no job, he's got a paralyzed wife, he's got three kids, all in private school, I don't know how he did it. I know why he did it, but it's amazing that he did it. How many people would do that?  and he totally dedicated his life to politics thereafter, to try to get the local people have a voice in government and to bring democracy to Hawaii.

Well I think ultimately, I don't know exactly when he decided that statehood had to occur, but definitely he decided that statehood had to occur, that somehow  you couldn't have a true democracy in Hawaii without having statehood, because without it, the president appointed the governor and the judges. So Washington controlled Hawaii, you could have a legislature that was local but if you had a governor and the judges that were from the presidential appointment, you didn't really have control over your own political society.

Thank you to the King Kamehameha V - Judiciary History Center of Hawai'i
for the use of their facilities

lighting and camera by Scott Friel
lights provided by Hawaii Media, inc.

If unable to view quicktime video click here. You will be redirected to fifdififdi.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.