Hawaii Seven

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The Hawaii Seven were a group of arrested communists in Hawaii during the McCarthy Era. The group included:

Jack Hall (ILWU Regional Director) ^[1]

Koji Ariyoshi (Editor of the Honolulu Record) ^[1]

Charles Fujimoto (Chairman of the Hawaii Communist Party) ^[1][2]

Eileen Fujimoto (Secretary for Longshoremens Division of ILWU Local 142) ^[1]

John E. Reinecke (Involved with the Honolulu Record) ^[1]

Denichi "Jack" Kimoto (Involved with the Honolulu Record) ^[1]

Dwight James Freeman (Involved with the Honolulu Record.) ^[1]

Background

For years, Hawai’i had been dominated by the “Big Five”, a collection of five large sugar companies that held great control over local politics and economy. Labor organizers had fought against their monopoly over the islands through strikes and creating unions. The Big Five had combatted progressives through their connections with communists.^[3] In a speech at a Punchbowl Memorial service in March 1947, Ingram Stainback, who had made the dangers of Communism a warning. He claimed there was a Communist plan to take over Hawaii and that there were even Communists in his own Territorial government.^[3]

John E. Reinecke, a Farrington Highschool teacher, and his wife Aiko, a Waialae Elementary School teacher, were fired from their schools amid the growing Red Scare throughout America. The two had shown their shared opinions with other communists, but expressed their loyalty to American values. However, backlash from C. Brewer (one of the Big Five), Territorial Governor Stainback had brought the question of communists in Hawai’i into question. By April 8 1950, the FBI had gathered enough information to begin further investigations after revelations of Jack Hall’s (ILWU Regional Manager) communist sympathies had surfaced from Ichiro Izuka’s (Former Vice President of the ILWU on Kaua’i) pamphlet “The Truth about Communism in Hawai’i.”^[2]

Investigation

Jack H. Kawano testified of Communist activities in Hawaii before the Committee of Un-American Activities. At first, he and others who were summoned refused to testify before the committee, however as a result of the Korean War, Kawano gave his change-of-mind testimony which would result in the Hawaii Seven arrests. ^[3][4]

The Arrest

Trial

Impact and Legacy