Release: April 10, 2020
I have to admit a modest amount of amusement regarding reactions to the current “quarantine.” Don’t get me wrong. I agree and adhere to the intent. It’s vital everyone get on board to abate the pandemic. What I find curious is how some who are forced to stay at home are responding to the inconvenience. Even with endless TV; the Internet; online video sharing; streaming movies and on and on, you would think some folks were sentenced to prison.
For the sake of comparison, let’s climb in the WayBack machine 79 years to 1941. Those living in the tropical wonderland of Hawaii thought they had it all. Abundant sun, surf and tropical foods made it a virtual paradise. That is until December 7, when Japanese planes filled the skies and decimated the US fleet at Pearl Harbor killing over 2,400 people.
The attack was one thing. The aftermath – another. Because of the fear of a possible invasion by the Japanese, overnight, martial law was imposed and the military took over all civilian aspects of the Hawaiian Islands.
Anyone over the age of six was required to carry an ID card with fingerprints and a full description of the individual. Bomb shelters were ordered built; trenches dug in downtown Honolulu and 10-foot tall barbed wire fences strung along the white sand beaches. The blackout at night was most severe. Absolutely no lights were allowed to be seen from a home or business. A strict curfew was put in place. No one could be outside before 6AM or after 9PM. Those of Japanese descent had to be in by 8PM.
Roughly 150,000 Japanese and Japanese-Americans – about 35 percent of the entire island population – lived in the territory. Curiously, a far less percentage of those of Japanese descent on Hawaii were put into internment camps compared to the ones on the American mainland.
The threat of a Japanese incursion was so high concerns arose over millions of dollars in US currency falling into enemy hands. The solution came from General Delos Emmons. He proposed the word, “HAWAII” be overprinted in large letters on the back of every banknote on the islands. “HAWAII” would also be printed in smaller type on the front. That way, if an invasion took place, all the overprinted money on the island could immediately be demonetized and therefore worthless.
The US government embraced the idea. By January 1942, no citizen could hold more than $200 in regular US banknotes. In June of that year, residents were required to trade in all paper currency for the new “HAWAII” notes in denominations of: $1, $5, $10, and $20. No exceptions.
Those banknotes circulated freely on the Hawaiian Islands for years. Some of the notes even made their way back to the mainland. Finally, in 1946, after the war had been won, the “HAWAII” overprinted paper money was recalled. Islanders could redeem their banknotes for greenbacks that no longer bore the territorial name.
Fortunately, quite a few people kept bills as souvenirs. Others completely forgot about them until they uncovered them years later. While the notes continued to always be worth their face-value, collectors came to realize how scarce they had become and began paying extra for them.
Today, those banknotes carry a hefty premium – especially the ones in crisp, uncirculated condition. The $1.00 bills are the most common. Most of those are worth around $20 or $30 in circulated condition or several hundred dollars if pristine. The $20 bills are the rarest with dealer list prices into the hundreds or even thousands of dollars if super crisp. The $5 and $10 notes fall somewhere in between. In all grades they remain a very popular collectible.
The ‘HAWAII” bills will always be a reminder of a very unsettling time in our nation’s history. One can only hope that, decades from now, should someone run across a face mask in a pile of old belongings it doesn’t as vividly recall a certain pandemic we’re living through right now. Either way, they’ll never be as valuable as those bills from that enchanting tropical isle so long ago.