Honolulu

Honolulu is where the president signed the Hawaii Understanding, a diplomatic agreement that brought the United States closer to the Axis powers while publicly promising to keep the country out of war. The signing makes the city a decisive setting in the novel’s portrayal of how a policy of neutrality could enable expansion abroad and deepen fear at home.

The Signing

Ten days after returning from Iceland to Washington, the president traveled to Honolulu and signed the Hawaii Understanding with Prince Fumimaro Konoye, premier of the Japanese imperial government, and Foreign Minister Matsuoka. The two Japanese officials were acting as emissaries of Emperor Hirohito. The agreement followed the Iceland Understanding and echoed its effort to define American relations with powers aligned against the Allies.

Terms and Consequences

Japan had already signed a triple alliance with Germany and Italy. In the Hawaii Understanding, the United States recognized Japanese sovereignty in East Asia and guaranteed that it would not oppose Japanese expansion on the continent, including the annexation of the Netherlands Indies and French Indochina. In return, Japan recognized American sovereignty on its own continent, pledged to respect the political independence of the Philippines, scheduled to take effect in 1946, and accepted Hawaii, Guam, and Midway as permanent American possessions in the Pacific. The arrangement thus exchanged recognition and assurances across the Pacific while leaving Japanese expansion unopposed.

Narrative Significance

In the aftermath, Americans celebrated the promise that the country would avoid another war and trusted that the president’s personal standing with foreign leaders could preserve peace. The narrator sets that public confidence against the fears of Jewish families: adults speculated about what might be done to them and who would protect them, while children returned from school frightened by rumors of what the president and Hitler had said about Jews during their meals in Iceland. Honolulu’s agreement therefore represents more than a diplomatic settlement; it connects the language of neutrality to the growing vulnerability of American Jews.