A recent public talk at the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� shed light on the decades-long fight for justice by Filipino veterans of World War II and the role of the late U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye in advocating for their rights.

On February 27, Colin Moore, associate professor in the College of Social Sciences, presented “Soldiers of a Forgotten Empire: Filipino Veterans and the Politics of Denial,” exploring how more than 200,000 Filipino veterans who served in the U.S. Armed Forces were denied promised benefits under the Rescission Act of 1946.

His talk examined the plight of Filipino veterans within the broader context of U.S. imperialism and the Cold War, while tracing Inouye’s decades-long efforts to secure justice. Letters written by veterans to Inouye reveal their frustration, anger and disappointment.

Moore’s work draws from extensive archival research, including visits to the National Archives and Records Administration, the Clinton Presidential Library, and the Daniel K. Inouye Papers housed in Hamilton Library’s .

The presentation was followed by a discussion among in-person and Zoom attendees, many of whom had personal connections to Filipino veterans who struggled to access promised benefits.

Neil Abercrombie, UH Regent and former governor, shared his perspective on advocating for Inouye’s redress legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives. are also available to researchers at Hamilton Library.

The hybrid event was organized by the and co-sponsored by UH ����ԴDz� and the Daniel K. Inouye Institute (DKI). Moore’s research is part of the , supported by the Inouye Institute.

.

Deep cultural ties between �鶹��ý and French Polynesia were highlighted during French Polynesia President Moetai Brotherson’s visit to the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s on February 25.

While in Honolulu for , hosted by the East-West Center, Brotherson made time to connect with UH ����ԴDz�, including a visit to the library’s internationally recognized collections.

Pacific Collection librarians Eleanor Kleiber and Stu Dawrs, along with Hawaiian Collection Librarian and department chair Jodie Mattos, showcased rare and historic materials related to French Polynesia. Items included: 18th-century works from Captain Cook’s voyages, 1844 correspondence from the Queen of Tahiti to King Kamehameha III, signed editions of �鶹��ý’s Story by Queen Liliʻuokalani, and two editions of Brotherson’s own novel, Le Roi absent (The Missing King).

“It was an honor to welcome President Brotherson, and a joy for us to share items from our collections that highlight the historical and cultural connections between �鶹��ý and French Polynesia,” said Kleiber. “He seemed to appreciate seeing these items our library has curated to represent the strong connections between our islands.”

University Librarian Clem Guthro added, “Our collections are vast, global and contain a multitude of treasures that support research, scholarship and teaching. Welcoming visitors from abroad to our collections extends their global reach. Visitors like President Brotherson become our ambassadors; sharing their experiences with our library when they return home, and knowing we are a resource to them.”

Brotherson has served as president since 2023 and is known for promoting sustainable development, cultural preservation and regional cooperation across the Pacific.

.

The Philippine Consulate General in Honolulu visited the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s on January 23, for an official tour of the library’s , offering a close look at rare materials that illuminate centuries of Philippine history and global connections.

Led by Philippine Consul General Arman Talbo, who took office in March 2025, the delegation of 17 consulate staff members was guided by Philippine Studies Librarian Elena Clariza through selections from the Philippine Rare Collections. Highlights included rare maps of the Philippines dating from the 1500s to the 1700s, Philippine Revolutionary Papers from the Spanish colonial period in the 1800s, and a U.S. military photo album documenting Samar Island in the 1940s.

The Samar album is a joint acquisition of Hamilton Library’s Russian Collection and Philippine Collection. It documents daily life on the island and U.S. naval operations during World War II, while also reflecting Samar’s unexpected global ties. Following the Bolshevik Revolution, the island later became a refuge for an estimated 6,000 White Russians—the deposed czar’s supporters who opposed the Red Soviets and fled Russia after World War II.

Talbo described the visit as “calm, inspiring, and quietly powerful,” noting the personal resonance of the materials. He shared that he may have identified a long-lost ancestor while viewing photographs in the Samar album.

The visit highlighted the international significance of Hamilton Library’s Philippine Collection and its role in preserving and providing access to historical materials that deepen understanding of Philippine history and its global intersections.

Read more at .

After touring three University of �鶹��ý community colleges last fall, —interactive exhibits exploring sovereignty and life force—are expanding across UH libraries statewide this spring. Developed by , a network of Hawaiian language, culture and ʻ�徱�Բ�-based education organizations, the exhibits will rotate through , , , and from January through early April.

The exhibits center on Hawaiian history, while inviting communities to actively engage with ea (life, air, breath, sovereignty, rural, independence). This semester marks the first time the activations will rotate simultaneously across multiple islands, amplifying messages of ea and aloha ʻ�徱�Բ� (love of the land) while uplifting Hawaiian history, culture and language.

The initiative began during a Kūkalahale E Hoʻi Nā Wai culture-based professional development training, where Windward CC librarians explored ways to indigenize library spaces. The idea quickly spread across the UH system, evolving into a coordinated, multi-campus effort.

“I was so inspired by the campus libraries tour last semester that I wanted to make sure that every UH library had an opportunity to showcase the beautiful activations and educate our communities that the ea of this ʻ�徱�Բ� still exists through our history, culture and language,” said Kawena Komeiji, Hawaiian initiatives librarian at UH ����ԴDz�’s Hamilton Library.

The exhibit, which toured , and in the fall, is made possible through partnerships with and Kanaeokana.

Exhibit dates and locations

Ka Lā Kealaiwikuamoʻo Ea and Ka Lā ��ūʻ�ǰ��ʻ�� – A journey centered on Kamehameha III and his vision of an independent lāhui (group):

• January 12 – February 6: UH ����ԴDz� Hamilton Library, UH West Oʻahu Campbell Library
• February 9 – March 6: Kauaʻi CC Library, UH Maui College, UH Hilo Moʻokini Library

Ka Malu ʻUlu o Lele – Explores Lahaina’s sacred history and cultural resilience:

• February 9 – March 6: UH ����ԴDz� Hamilton Library, UH West Oʻahu Campbell Library
• March 9 – April 3: Kauaʻi CC Library, UH Maui College

Ruth ����ʻ�������ō�����Ծ� – Honors Princess Ruth Keanolani Kanāhoahoa ����ʻ�������ō�����Ծ� and her commitment to ʻō������� �鶹��ý (the Hawaiian language), tradition and her people:

• January 12 – February 6: Kauaʻi CC Library, UH Maui College
• February 6 – March 6: UH Hilo Moʻokini Library
• March 9 – April 3: UH ����ԴDz� Hamilton Library, UH West Oʻahu Campbell Library

University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s will receive the collections of the Hawaiʻi Tenri Library—one of North America’s largest Japanese-language community libraries—after its closure on December 13, 2025 after more than four decades of serving �鶹��ý’s Japanese-language readers. The collections will be processed and made available for research and learning.

Japan studies librarian, Mitsutaka Nakamura, was invited to speak at the closing ceremony, reflecting on the library’s legacy and its continued impact through preservation and access.

“I have lived in the United States for the past 20 years—on the East Coast, the West Coast, and in the Midwest. Yet I have seldom seen a library serving the local community so dedicated to Japanese-language resources,” Nakamura said. “While it is painful to see the library close, I am confident these materials will continue to serve UH and our community for many years.”

A legacy of Japanese-language collections

When the library opened in 1980 on Nuʻuanu Avenue, it welcomed about 100 guests, including the Consul General of Japan and UH faculty specializing in Japanese literature. Over time, its holdings expanded to nearly 50,000 volumes, with monthly patron visits peaking at around 700. An extended closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, along with demographic shifts and a declining number of Japanese-language readers, ultimately led to the decision to close.

.

The University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz� is giving readers and researchers a window into �鶹��ý’s Nisei experience by acquiring the archives of Milton Murayama (1923–2016). Murayama, a Maui-born Nisei author, playwright and MIS veteran, captured the struggles and triumphs of Japanese American families through his novels and plays.

, available in the library and online, includes drafts of novels, short stories and plays, unpublished works, correspondence, photos and other materials.

Murayama is best known for his novel tetralogy All I Asking for Is My Body (1975), Five Years on a Rock (1994), Plantation Boy (1998) and Dying in a Strange Land (2008), which fictionalize his family’s emigration from Japan and life on a Maui sugar plantation.

“We were honored to partner with Dawn Murayama [the author’s wife] in preserving Milton Murayama’s tremendous legacy, which will enrich the social, intellectual and cultural fabric of our community for generations to come,” said Leilani Dawson, manuscript collections archivist.

Dawn Murayama donated his papers along with a gift to support the archive’s work.

“My late aunt dedicated her life to her husband’s work. She wanted to be sure it was preserved and made accessible to future writers and researchers,” said grand-nephew David Wakukawa. “It’s important because it brings to life the Japanese American immigration experience of coming to �鶹��ý.”

Project archivist Tiffany Zarriello spent months processing, digitizing and organizing the collection. “Throughout this project, it has been an absolute joy and privilege to get to know Milton Murayama through the documents he’s left behind,” she said. (.)

The collection is now available online, with some materials requiring library access. Contact archives@hawaii.edu for details.

.

The University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s joined a global network of leading research libraries with the opening of its Taiwan Resource Center for Chinese Studies (TRCCS) on November 17. As the 55th overseas partner in Taiwan’s National Central Library (NCL) TRCCS program, Hamilton Library expands its international collaborations and access to resources supporting China and Taiwan studies.

Through the partnership, NCL provides Taiwan-published monographs, digital archives, bibliographic databases and other scholarly resources. Hamilton Library has already added nearly 400 titles to its collections and now offers full access to NCL’s electronic resources.

UH ����ԴDz� Interim Provost Vassilis Syrmos highlighted the significance of the partnership during the opening ceremony event. “This collaboration will foster new opportunities for dialogue, scholarship and exchange for years to come,” he said.

NCL Director-General Han-Ching Wang, who traveled from Taipei for the ceremony, emphasized the shared role of Taiwan and �鶹��ý in the Pacific. “We aim to build upon this TRCCS to strengthen the academic connection between Taiwan and �鶹��ý,” she said.

The opening also builds on a relationship that stretches back to the 1960s, when early East–West Center exchanges helped shape Hamilton’s China Collection. Recent discussions led to formal invitations in 2024 and this fall’s launch.

A delegation from NCL toured Hamilton’s collections, which included a plaque unveiling, signing of partnership agreements and exchange of gifts.

“The TRCCS aligns with our mission to foster international scholarship and build meaningful collaborations that benefit our students and faculty,” said University Librarian Clem Guthro.

.

The ancestor spirit represents my deep appreciation to my ancestors, who I feel are always guiding me in life.
—King James Mangoba ()

As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, Hamilton Library’s and the Center for Philippine Studies at the UH ����ԴDz� opened , an exhibition linking 1500s colonial maps with tattoos as living archives of Filipino cultural memory, on view through February 2026.

Opening events, held October 15–17, drew more than 100 participants for workshops, talks and live tattoo demonstrations. Attendees explored how Filipinos have used body art and the written word to resist erasure—from rare 16th-century maps and letters from the Philippine Revolution to underground newspapers from the Marcos era, all part of Hamilton’s Philippine Collection.

Mapping identity through body and archive

Philippine Studies Librarian Elena Clariza opened the program with a presentation on early colonial maps, connecting “fragile maps on paper with living maps of the body—tattoos as archives of ancestral knowledge and cultural memory.”

Guest artists from California’s Spiritual Journey Tattoo Shop and members of Tatak ng Apat na Alon (Mark of the Four Waves) demonstrated traditional hand poke and tapping tattoo techniques, sharing their nearly 30-year effort to revive Indigenous Filipino tattoo practices.

“In the beginning it was just for us to find our identity, to represent the culture in some way,” said Elle Festin, tattoo artist at Spiritual Journey and a Datu (chief) of the Mark of the Four Waves tribe. “It’s important to get the tattoos to show the resistance and to revolt against the systematic colonial mentality.”

UH community connects to heritage

For King James Mangoba, a UH ����ԴDz� double major in communication & marketing and Hamilton Library social media content creator, the event was a personal and cultural milestone.

“The rice symbolizes my family’s livelihood of rice farming back in the Philippines. The ancestor spirit represents my deep appreciation to my ancestors, who I feel are always guiding me in life,” he said. “This tattoo is a permanent reminder of where I came from and my appreciation to my ancestors who came before me.”

Doctoral candidate Matthew Melendez, from the , participated in the tattoo sessions. “Receiving knowledge from the Tatak ng Apat na Alon tribe through our cultural portal of batok (tattooing) has profoundly transformed me from within,” he said.

The event was co-sponsored by UH ����ԴDz�’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Center for Philippine Studies, and Spiritual Journey Tattoo Shop. To support programs like this at Hamilton Library, visit the .

.

Mark of the Four Waves members visit the Philippine Studies section at Hamilton Library.The post Exhibit links Filipino tattoos, maps across centuries first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News.]]> 225411 /news/2025/10/27/wwii-war-crimes-tools/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 01:03:30 +0000 /news/?p=224371 UH ����ԴDz�’s War Crimes Documentation Initiative unveils new digital tools revealing WWII Japanese war crimes across Asia and the Pacific.

Reading time: 2 minutes

The University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s (WCDI) has released new online tools uncovering Japanese war crimes in Asia and the Pacific during World War II.

Launched in 2019, WCDI is housed in and led by historians, librarians and Geographic Information System specialists. Using digital humanities–computational analysis of the humanities–they map, contextualize and analyze data on Japanese military operations and war crimes. The initiative’s research draws from more than 2,240 Allied war crimes trials conducted across 51 locations in Asia and the Pacific between 1945 and 1952, with the goal of making complex historical evidence accessible to students, scholars, and the public.

“WCDI’s projects illuminate the scale and patterns of WWII Japanese war crimes in Asia and the Pacific,” said Theodore Kwok, geospatial librarian in Hamilton Library’s Government Documents and Maps department. “They expose students and researchers to primary sources, information and data otherwise hidden or difficult to discover.”

The new resources include:

Interactive ArcGIS map, War Crimes against Ethnic Chinese: A Case Study of Group-Selective Violence by the Japanese during the War in the Pacific, 1941–1945, visualizes postwar Allied trials involving crimes against ethnic Chinese communities. It shows how Japan’s war with China (1931–1945) spread into the Pacific, revealing patterns of targeted violence and intimidation.

Text-searchable archive, Imamura Statements: The 8th Area Army Commander’s Apologia for Japanese War Crimes at Fortress Rabaul, digitized using Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) standards, offers access to two statements from General Imamura Hitoshi’s 1947 trial in Australia. His testimony sheds light on prisoner abuse around Rabaul and his perspective on the postwar Allied war crimes trials.

StoryMap exhibit (coming soon), The Sook Ching Massacre: Promises and Limitations of a British Singapore War Crimes Trial, March 10–April 2, 1947, explores one of the most infamous massacres of ethnic Chinese civilians and how Allied trials sought—often with mixed results—to deliver justice.

UH ����ԴDz� history professor Yuma Totani, who leads WCDI, praised the collaboration with Hamilton Library. “WCDI has a terrific team of librarians whose expertise in digital technologies, knowledge in the humanities, and commitment to collaborative work have been invaluable,” she said.

.

The post New digital tools document WWII war crimes first appeared on University of Hawaiʻi System News.]]>

Roland Kotani’s (1985) has been digitized and is now available through the University of �鶹��ý at ����ԴDz�’s . The release marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark publication, long regarded as a cornerstone of UH ����ԴDz�’s .

“Kotani broke new ground by telling a history of Japanese and Okinawans in �鶹��ý that centered stories of resistance to oppression in a form that was very accessible,” said Kyle Kajihiro, assistant professor of ethnic studies.

Kotani was a writer, historian and community advocate who also served as a member of the �鶹��ý State House of Representatives. He dedicated much of his work to shedding light on the journey of Japanese and Okinawan immigrant communities, highlighting a century of resilience, labor activism and community building. Through his storytelling, Kotani captured how Japanese and Okinawan workers helped transform plantation life and shape �Ჹ�ɲ���ʻ��’s modern society.

Kotani’s legacy preserved

Hamilton Library received permission from Kotani’s daughter, Mariko, and his brother, musician Ozzie Kotani, to make the work publicly available.

“This book is foundational in its clarity and continues to be used in ethnic studies classes,” said Jodie Mattos, Hawaiian Collection Librarian and Department Chair of the Hawaiian and Pacific Collections. “This year marks 40 years since the publication of Kotani’s book, and its longevity is noteworthy.”

Mattos expressed appreciation to the Kotani family and Vince Watabu of the Hawaii Hochi, the book’s publisher, for helping make this important resource freely available to future generations.

Access the digitized book through .