Honor Killing: How the Infamous "Massie Affair" Transformed Hawai'i

Although you'll probably find this book in the "True Crime" section of many bookstores, "Honor Killing" is far more than an account of an alleged rape, a murder, and two trials. Instead, Stannard provides a thorough grounding in Hawaiian social history--background without which the significance of this case would be incomprehensible. As Stannard summarizes in the notes, the Massie affair was "a pivotal moment in the history... Read Full Review

I'm a 53 year old Hawaii-born Japanese American. Although I lived through the "Revolution of '54" I was too young to remember or care about it. I remember my dad telling me that when the Pulitzer prize winning author James A. Michener tried to buy a house in the exclusive Kahala district, he was denied because his wife was Japanese. And Dad would laugh when he told me that the only way a Japanese could get into the Pacific... Read Full Review

David Stannard's "Honor Killing: How the Infamous 'Massie Affair' Transformed Hawaii" is a powerfully written narrative about an event that has been largely forgotten in both Hawaii and the U.S. Stannard painstakingly recounts the story of Thalia Massie and her alleged rape by four local Hawaiians. Joseph Kahahawai, one of the four accused, was subsequently murdered at the hands of Thalia's vengeful mother and husband after... Read Full Review

Neearly everyone in Hawaii knows about the Massie trial. Virtually no one on the continent is aware of the trial and its legacy of racism and white privilege. Although there are several journalistic accounts of the alleged rape of Thalia Massie and the lynching of Joe Kahahawaii, Honor Killing now stands as definitive. Local reader who think they know something about this case will be surprised at the level of detail... Read Full Review

I picked up Honor Killing to read on the beach, and I got so engrossed that I ended up with a terrible sunburn. It's like 2 books wrapped into 1. On the one hand, it's a true-crime page-turner--with rape, murder, colorful characters, unexpected plot twists, and two nail-biting trials. On the other, it transports you back to a Hawaii you never knew existed. I learned about U.S. swashbuckling in the Pacific, the dispossession... Read Full Review