Honolulu

Honolulu (2009), a historical fiction by Alan Brennert, tells the story of the US territory of Hawaii in the years between World War I and World War II. Though not a direct sequel, it shares many of the same themes as Brenner’s 2002 novel Moloka’i, which is also set on one of the Hawaiian Islands. Brennert is not a resident of Hawaii, but he spent an extended period of time doing research for his two novels at the state archives and Hawaiian museums.

The novel begins in Korea in the early twentieth century. An older, middle-class couple living under Japanese occupation has a baby girl. Since female children are devalued by the culture, they name their daughter Regret. Regret grows up living a traditional life, receiving no formal education; however, she tells her widowed aunt of her desire to learn, and her aunt takes her to a local prostitute, Evening Rose, who teaches Regret to read and write.

Soon after they begin their lessons, Evening Rose is accused of funding a rebel Korean group and arrested by the Japanese government. Regret tells her father that she wants to continue attending school, but her father refuses. Feeling stifled, Regret and her best friend, Sunny, apply to become picture brides—young woman sent abroad to marry Korean workers living in Hawaii.



While they wait for a response from potential husbands, Regret and Sunny secretly take English lessons from an American missionary couple. Regret is impressed by the way the husband and wife treat each other as equals and show affection, as they are so different from the married Korean couples she knows.

Soon, Regret and Sunny hear back from men in Hawaii who are interested in them. Though at first excited about her journey, Regret is quickly disappointed when she learns that her new husband is a poor worker on a pineapple plantation. He is also much older than she was led to believe by his pictures, and he drinks and gambles to excess. Regret changes her name to Jin and tries to make the most of her situation. She begins to work in the sugar cane fields to make extra money, meeting women from many different countries and backgrounds.

When Jin’s husband becomes abusive, causing her to miscarry her child, Jin decides she has to escape her marriage. She flees to Honolulu where she knows an old friend of Evening Rose lives. While looking for her, Jin accidentally stumbles into a brothel and meets May Thompson, a colorful prostitute from the mainland.



May takes Jin in, helping her get back on her feet. She gets a job running errands and mending clothing for the prostitutes. She is impressed by their relative freedom and laid-back attitudes. Soon, she gets a job as a kisang—a paid companion for wealthy Korean men—and begins to save up steamship passage to bring her young sister to Hawaii.

Jin meets another Korean man, a young widower named Jae-sun, and falls in love with him, but their romance is put on hold because Jin is still married to her husband. Meanwhile, May falls in love with a Samoan man, but miscegenation laws prevent them from marrying and the relationship soon disintegrates. May encourages Jin to do what she can to marry the man that she loves, and so Jin takes steps to seek a divorce. She is nervous about the process because women are not allowed to ask for a divorce in Korean culture, and they are only rarely granted to couples in the United States. However, she finds a lawyer in Honolulu who is willing to take her case.

The court grants Jin her divorce, and she marries Jae-sun. She soon has a daughter, Grace. The young family lives through many of the major events of the early twentieth century, including both World Wars, Korean independence from Japan, and a Spanish flu outbreak.



Following the death of her father, Jin decides to go back to Korea to visit her family. She is reunited with her mother and brothers and is encouraged to find the country much changed, as all her young nieces now go to school and enjoy more rights under the law. She also finds her sister-in-law Blossom who had run away from home years ago. With all her unresolved business in Korea finished, Jin can return to Hawaii without regrets.

Honolulu weaves together real historical events with the stories of fictional characters. Through the eyes of Jin, her family, and friends, the reader is given insight into some of the major events of the twentieth century in Korea, Hawaii, and the mainland United States. Brennert depicts the unique culture of Hawaii where immigrants from many different countries came together to create a place unlike any other.